Modus Operandi
by Zokolov
Summary: As Darkrai wreaks havoc around the Pokémon world, our not-so-heroic and mentally unstable Trainers such as Kris, Lyra and Silver prepare to take it down while solving their personal problems. Naturally, things are stranger than they seem.
1. In Too Deep

_**EXTRANORMAL OPERATIONS  
**_

_**VOLUME II: MODUS OPERANDI**_

Author's Notes: _I think I'm getting the hang of these summaries... In this story, a core group of not-so-heroic characters work in Extranormal Operations - a group which works under a company that trains Pokémon Trainers into killing machines and harnesses them to 'protect' the world and humanity from the threat of legendary Pokémon. In this story, the threat is Darkrai. What follows is a rather complex plot featuring conspiracies, madness, strange dialogue and coffee. Lots of it. What I really want to explore here are the characters: what are their psychological motives, what drives them to act in the manner they do? Find out! As implied, the story is the second part in the series, but you really don't need to read the first one to get the hang of this. If you want, I ain't stopping ya. This story will once again be 12 chapters long. The first chapter is a prologue, while the story begins properly from the second one._

THE CAST:  
**Kris** (pessimistic, bitter and cynical); **Lyra** (bitchy, aggressive and by-the-book); **Silver **(distant, stoic and generally grumpy); **Touko White** (crazier than an Arbok's armpit); **Cheren Black** (a manipulative and unscrupulous businessman) and finally the OC **Shane** (an idiot who somehow managed to become an agent). That, and a whole bunch of supporting characters. Based on the games, not the anime, though it takes characters and influences from Pokémon Special.

_Enjoy! _

* * *

_**IN TOO DEEP**_

_**Eldritch's Journal, Canalave City, the thirteenth of February**_

_I must apologize to you in advance, dear reader, but as I write this, my hands tremble from fear as I put down on paper the final thoughts that continue to ravage my mind. It all began several days ago. During that fateful morning, the sun rose just like on a day any other. Me and my wife Eleanor woke up that morning. Our son, Howard, did not. The sight of him trashing in the bed, pale as death, as if ravaged by some kind of disease, gave me fear such as I have never experienced before. I have experienced the powerful, all-consuming storms at sea, where I also stared a Gyarados in the eye, but the feeling of helplessness that overcame me during my son's distress horrified me. As he trashed in the bed, anguished words escaped from his lips:_

"_Dark… Dark… Is watching me…"  
_

_We have tried everything, but our son wouldn't wake up. I cannot even imagine what he must be seeing - and I truly don't wish to. Ever since that day, curing my son's ailment has been my only objective. _

_But ever since that morning, our hometown was not as it used to be. The most densest fog surrounded our city, and those who attempted to flee were never heard from again. The sky and everything around us was white. Standing anywhere would make you feel detached from your body, as if you never existed at all. I admit that my trip to Fullmoon Island, my attempt to stop my son's suffering, was also an excuse to get away from all that… whiteness. I gathered a crew and took a ship, deciding not to bother the harbormaster with such trivial things as borrowing his boats._

_Alas, we did not get far. Navigation turned out to be impossible in the fog, and the mental stability of my crew took a turn for the worse. A few minutes ago, my first mate, Philip, snapped. There was something about his horrified expression, his foaming mouth and bulging eyes, that made me think that it was something out of this world that drove him on the edge. The way he knocked one of us in the anchor and threw him on the sea with it, and as the rest of us found out about this, he started to pick us off, one by one. We manage to incapacitate him and tie him up, but his madness turned to be as contagious as the common flu when the rest of my crew began to act irrationally. In the end, once the fights from supplies got to a particularly bad point, I decided that I had no choice. I disposed of all of my men, including my first mate. I did not make the decision lightly, though I perhaps should have considered other options when I cooked the flesh of the navigator. Not only did he taste bad, but our ship soon crashed into a rock. Hastily grabbing the radio, I screamed my throat hoarse in attempt to call for help, but I soon discovered the futility of my efforts._

_As I rushed outside in futile effort to get to the lifeboats, I saw the abomination behind all this with my own eyes. A shadowy, shapeless blob of the deepest black, its singular, blue eye stared at me lifelessly. It was at that very moment when I received horrifying visions… during that brief period of when my mind linked with the dark creature, I realized just how insignificant the problems of Canalave City were on the global scale. The creature that emerged from the waters showed me this well, but at a terrible cost: now that I know everything, I cannot return to Canalave. Merely thinking about what I saw is enough to cause unspeakable pain, and the abomination will not leave me alone. I, as the ship's captain, will sink along with it, but I should anyone get this message, I implore you, do not attempt to-_

* * *

**Sledge Hammer and Extranormal Operations HQ, Johto, behind the Pokéthlon Dome**

_9:27 PM_

Professor Kaminko, the commander of the Sledge Hammer Intelligence Team and the agency known as Extranormal Operations, stood in his glamorous, decorative office, staring out from the window, watching the beautiful, snow-covered ground in awe. It was times like these that caused him to remember just how beautiful unspoiled nature could be… and all the while he thought about how he could save lots of money by replacing those ugly trees with a proper road. He would save more than three minutes in his daily commute that way! The sixty-six year old professor was old enough to be a veteran of the Pokémon-Human war, but this did not make him any less able to keep on working. Indeed, while mostly bald and only having thin streaks of gray hair on the top of his head, the professor was nevertheless tall and physically fit despite his age.

"Um… sir?"

Kaminko sighed. His brown-nosed assistant, doctor Krane, called for him. Though much younger, Krane had lost much more hair, and was short and overweight. Krane was Slegde Hammer's psychologist and second-in-command, and while Kaminko loathed the man on a personal level, he would not show it - Krane was fiercely loyal to him and the closest thing he had to a confidante.

"We just received a transmission from our intelligence department in Sinnoh," Krane said, "it appears that Darkrai has awakened. Canalave is, due to lack of a better word, screwed. Any ideas?"

Kaminko sighed. Why was it always him that had to make the decisions? He walked away from the window and watched the bronze statue on his desk, shaped in the image of the elusive legendary Pokémon Kyurem.

"Send one of our agents on the location," he told Krane, who wrote the orders down, as if he could not remember orders that were lengthier than three words. "Also, doctor, I need a summary of our progress in the last mission. Overall, how did it all go?"

Krane sighed and snapped his fingers. As if on cue, a projector was turned on, and an image was projected on the wall. Kaminko stared at the image as Krane narrated, as if he had prepared a PowerPoint presentation just in case Kaminko would ask him about the last mission. The current image was of Heatran, the legendary Pokémon that the Extranormal Operatives had successfully caught during the previous mission at Stark Mountain.

"The science team is currently researching Heatran," Krane explained. "The Pokémon is kept alive, but just the life support consumes a lot of power. I'm afraid keeping it alive will be expensive. How are we going to explain _that_ to the Committee?"

"Don't worry about that, doctor," Kaminko said. "What about Touya?"

"The activation went successfully, and professor Elm is currently doing some… modifications."

Heatran's image disappeared from the wall, and was disappeared with live video footage of professor Elm and Blaine, Touya's creator, making adjustments to this part-human, part-machine and part-Pokémon of a creature. While Elm made sure Touya constantly showed signs of life, Blaine had cut off a piece of Touya's head and was cheerfully tweaking Touya's brain, which looked exactly similar as a human one. But Touya merely stared forward, his eyes dead and his face emotionless.

"What about the rest of the agents?" Kaminko asked.

The video soon disappeared from the wall, and was replaced with an image containing five faces: the Operatives. The images of White (agent 02), Kris (agent 05), Lyra (agent 06), Silver (agent 07) and Shane (09) seemed to make Krane uncomfortable - after all, it was his job to make sure that the mental health of the agents was sound, and he wasn't doing a very good job with it.

"As you know, Touya performed marvelously during the last mission," Krane said. "The others… not so much. The implants in their brains seem to be working properly, yet they still haven't mastered the use of Pokémon Powers, as we witnessed when agent five attempted and failed to use Ice Beam. Worse than that, they all seem a bit… off. Silver is distant, Lyra is outright aggressive and White still seems to be traumatized by that incident. Yet they're all very capable. Kris is a bit of a borderline case - she shows promise, but in order to function properly, she needs to get rid of her neuroses. Shane is completely useless so far, but his, um… _connection_ to Cheren Black might be useful for us, so I'm keeping him around."

When Krane turned the projector off and put the lights back on, Kaminko started to stare out of the window again. As he started speaking, Krane got the goosebumps from Kaminko's deep, authoritarian voice.

"We needn't worry," he said. "As soon as the legendary Red is in our grasp, we have access to the data of the most powerful trainer that has ever lived. Project Genesect was a startling success, and if we apply the same 'modifications' to Red as we have done with the others, we can have an army of supercharged Pokémon trainers in our control."

"But if that does become reality, what do we do with those other five?" Krane wondered.

Kaminko took a moment to consider before responding, and when he finally answered, he did so in the coldest manner possible:

"When that happens, we will have no need for them anymore. After all, they are merely flesh."


	2. Beyond Her Heart

_**BEYOND HER HEART**_

When Kris woke up, her eyes started immediately hurting when her vision was filled with the clearest white. Everywhere she looked, everything was pure, white and clinical. Kris blinked her eyes a few times, realizing that she was on a hospital bed. Kris looked to her left, and saw a catheter in her hand, and it occured to her that she was in IV. The location was apparently the hospital wing of the Sledge Hammer HQ.

Next, she turned her head to the right and saw someone on the next bed. At first, she thought she was looking at a brown-haired, brown-eyed version of herself. Then she recognized the girl. Wearing a soft, white bathrobe, Lyra was sitting there, leaning against a pillow with her arm in a cast. Lyra was comically attempting to read an ancient issue of _Pokémon Trainer Weekly_ with one hand, constantly dropping it.

"Damn it," she muttered. "Almost… wait… aw, no…"

"Lyra?"

Lyra turned her head in Kris' direction, giving her a patronizing look, as if she was looking down her nose at Kris.

"Well, well, well," she said and dropped her magazine. "Look who finally decided to wake up. How are you feeling?"

"Crappish, if a word like that exists," Kris mumbled incoherently, trying to make sense of things. "How long was I out?"

"Oh, you sprung awake there once during the night," Lyra said and shuddered. "I don't want to think about it, though. The first thing you did when you woke up, you started trashing in your bed and coughing up blood… don't you remember?"

Though Lyra attempted to sound scornful, there was fear and concern in her voice, and she flinched a bit when Kris pulled herself up in the bed. Kris touched her mouth, feeling a streak of dried blood on her chin.

"But… I was just poisoned…" Kris said quietly. "That doesn't usually happen…"

Lyra had picked up her magazine, and put it against her knees, still trying to read it with one hand.

"Oh, the doctor, Ein, had a theory," Lyra said casually while turning the page. "He thinks that the toxic gas combined with the heat inside the volcano fried the chip in your brain."

Kris' mouth opened from her shock as she stared at Lyra in horror. Lyra herself seemed to realize the poor choice of words, but didn't bother to try and comfort Kris. Not that she would do it in any case, but especially not after what Kris had done. Nervously, Kris started chewing on her dirty, frizzy, black hair and felt intense discomfort. Had her condition really been _that_ bad?

"Do you remember what else happened back at Stark Mountain, by the way?" Lyra asked.

Kris turned at Lyra again. She hadn't taken her eyes off the magazine, but her voice was filled with bitterness and disgust, surpassing the usual bitchiness by far. Unfortunately enough, Kris _did _remember leaving the dimwitted Shane into trouble and near death for her own personal gain, stealing the opportunity to combat Heatran from Lyra. A feeling of shame and disgust filled her as she looked away from Lyra.

"Yes, I remember," Kris sighed. "I was… I was…"

When Kris couldn't quite summarize it, Lyra was glad to do it:

"A glory-hounding, self-serving bitch?"

"I wouldn't put it _that_ harshly…"

"I would," Lyra said mercilessly. "But what's done is done."

"How did things go, then?" Kris asked to subtly change the subject. "What happened to everyone else?"

"Shane's injuries were really minor," Lyra said. "_I_ was hurt worse than him when I attempted to rescue him. Silver got badly burned, but he refused medical treatment. He just slapped a Burn Heal on it and called it a day. Your Totodile, Croc, is currently held by that scientist… Leaf, I think. Oh, and we also got a new agent."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, he's agent one," Lyra said. "The allegedly famous Touya. Dunno what's so special about him, but then again, I haven't see him in action yet. You'll see tomorrow. We will have a debriefing."

"We will?"

Kris was completely out of everything. She was feeling immensely frustrated, knowing that Lyra was most likely was considered a hero for helping that worthless Shane, while she would probably get insults from Lieutenant White for going against the Sledge Hammer dogma and endangering lives for personal glory. Due to that, she had no desire to face anyone at the moment. She collapsed on the bed and covered her head with the blanket.

* * *

**February 14****th****, 6:03 AM. Sledge Hammer HQ, Briefing Room. **

The next morning, Kris found herself in the debriefing room, the one that was like a classroom, filled with chairs and a blackboard on one wall. Lyra was keeping her distance from Kris and was staring in the other direction, refusing to speak with Kris unless it was absolutely necessary. Instead, there was someone next to Kris that was speaking more that was tolerable: Shane. Though Kris herself was quite short and skinny due to rather neglectful parenting, Shane was even punier than her. He was high-strung, scruffy, blonde-haired and, in case it wasn't clear previously, about as intelligent as the chair he sat on.

Kris looked behind her. Silver looked just like he always did, so Kris had noticed that he had entered the room with a slight limp. His long red hair, crossed arms and permanent scowl ensured that no one usually dared to approach the surly, stoic fellow. Silver himself was staring intently at the new arrival, who sat in the front row, a few benches away from Lyra.

_So that's Touya_, Kris thought.

Touya was wearing the same blue unisex jumpsuit as the other agents, Kris, Shane, Lyra and Silver included, but additionally, he also wore a cap. Touya's cap reminded Kris of White: it was red, and like Touko's, it had a Poké Ball-logo on it, only that Touya's was black. She would have liked to know more about Touya's and Touko White's connection, but she had been explicitly forbidden from talking to White about Touya's sudden reappearance, strange enough as it was. Just a few weeks ago, they had claimed that Touya had died, and now he was there in their midst, acting as if nothing had happened.

Touya's spotless face and smooth skin caused him to look rather feminine, further emphasized by his messy brown hair and deep, brown eyes. But there was something in his face that seemed a bit… off. Not just the lack of beard, pimples or scars in his face, but also the way he just stared forward without emotion or moving at all, looking like he was sitting in the most uncomfortable position. What the hell was up with that guy?

Kris was interrupted by the sound of the door slamming shut. Professor Elm had entered the briefing room. The tall, lanky, bespectacled and constantly nervous and absent-minded professor wasn't a usual sight there, as it was usually White who gave the instructions.

"Uh… hello, everyone," Elm began and pulled up his glasses. "Lieutenant White is feeling a bit ill today, so-"

"Really?" Silver interrupted. "You sure you're not just keeping her out from here?"

Kris turned to look at Silver, who stared at Elm knowingly. Elm rubbed the back of his neck and tried to look surprised.

"No, no, no," he flustered. "She really is… ill. But I didn't come here to say that, I came here to… why did I come here again? Oh, right, your instructions. First things first…"

Elm grabbed a remote from the pocket of his lab coat and pointed it at the projector on the back wall. A holographic projection of a town soon appeared near the blackboard, and it hovered on the air, rotating ominously. The place was clearly a port town, and it was bisected by a canal. It wasn't too big, but the seaside, the big library and the cobbled walkways made it seem pleasant.

"That is Canalave City, but it doesn't look nearly as pleasant now," Elm explained. "_This_ is a more accurate display."

Elm pressed another button, and everyone watched as the whole city was slowly consumed by a thick, white mist that covered absolutely everything.

"Entering or exiting Canalave via land or aerially is impossible now," Elm said, "and though the city is full of boats and ships, no one dares to try their luck at the sea anymore."

"Sissies!" Shane mocked.

"Well, maybe, but, um… there is another reason. You see, we intercepted a radio broadcast coming from a sailor called Eldritch. Soon after that, we also discovered the last entry on his journal. It seems that the fog arrived a few days ago, and immediately after that, his son started suffering from unspeakable nightmares. Not only that, but as of this day, his son is still asleep. Eldritch left Canalave in search for a cure, but disappeared when attempting to reach his destination, Fullmoon Island."

"What's it to us?" Kris wondered. "So there's a miniature version of the Bermuda Triangle there or something, we'll just put huge signs there telling people to 'stay the hell out'."

"Our issue," Elm said patiently, "is _this_."

The image of the mist-shrouded Canalave City soon disappeared, and was replaced by the three-dimensional image of a Pokémon unlike the operatives had ever seen before. The mere sight of the Pokémon was enough to cause Shane to, in his own words, 'defecate bricks.' The Pokémon was like a huge black blob, a three-dimensional shadow. It had no legs, but it did have long arms and freaky, claw-like hands. It was pitch-black otherwise, but it seemed to have only one, blue eye; a red, spiky growth surrounded its 'neck', while it seemed to have some sort of 'hair' - a white, ghostly substance floating behind it.

"I purposefully modified your PokéDexes to erase all info from this Pokémon, so don't bother looking it up," Elm said, "but this is Darkrai. It was last seen during the Pokémon-Human war thirty-five years ago, and has eluded us since then. Rumors say that it resides in Newmoon Island, the island right outside Fullmoon, but the place itself just seems to disappear whenever people try to reach it. It doesn't even show on a map anymore. Now, Fullmoon has also disappeared from the map."

"What's in Fullmoon, professor?" Lyra asked.

"Allegedly, the only thing with the power equal to Darkrai: Cresselia, Darkrai's counterpart. That beautiful thing was on our side during the Pokémon-Human war, but the colossal battle between Cresselia and Darkrai probably did more damage than anything else during the war combined. That's why mankind united to focus its efforts on keeping Darkrai and Cresselia away from each other."

"Well, that seemed to work out well," Kris remarked. "It's like 'hey, let's put Darkrai into that island and Cresselia on the island _right next to that _other one, they'll never come in contact'. What kind of idiots were working on that?"

"Our boss, professor Kaminko led the operation," Elm said coldly.

"I won't withdraw my statement," Kris said and crossed her arms.

"As you wish," Elm sighed. "Anyway, I fear the worst, but there's really nothing we _can_ do about it. Though Fullmoon doesn't show up on our maps anymore, we are still getting readings from it. We won't put any effort in trying to stop either Darkrai or Cresselia, because I know how _well_ the operation with Heatran went."

Kris, Lyra and Shane started to feel uncomfortable in their seats, but Silver simply had his arms crossed as he scowled at Elm, as always.

"Anyway," Elm said, "someone simply has to go to Fullmoon, retrieve a feather from Cresselia, bring it to Canalave, cure the boy's nightmares and hope that it will get rid of the fog. If not, try to find what is causing the mist."

"Sounds simple enough," Shane said and nodded.

"It is," Elm assured and put on a fake smile, pulling his glasses up again. "A boat is waiting just outside Floaroma Town. Piece of cake. Such a miniscule piece, in fact, that we only need one operative to go there. Who wants to go?"

Kris went over her chances; she still wanted to make up for that fiasco in Stark Mountain, and the mission didn't sound _too_ dangerous. But just as Kris was about to open her mouth, Lyra jumped up with her hand in the air, jumping up and down like an over-excited schoolgirl.

"Ooh, I'll do it, professor!" she squealed. "Pick me, pick me, pick me! Um… please?"

Elm shrugged.

"Fine, if you think you're up for it," Elm said, walked to the excited and smiling Lyra and gave her an envelope. "Here's your plane ticket to Sinnoh, just contact us via radio as soon as you get there."

"Yes sir thank you I'll go change right away thank you thank you thank you!" Lyra babbled rapidly, without bothering to take a breath or punctuate properly.

Lyra stormed out of the room with the envelope firmly in her hand, knocking over a few chairs as she ran out.

"So, what do the rest of us do?" the disappointed Kris asked.

"Rest assured, we have an important job for you and Shane!" Elm said and took his glasses off to polish them.

But as he spoke, his hands were trembling and he dropped his glasses, causing them to shatter.

* * *

About thirty minutes later, Kris and Shane were doing their 'important' job. With two toothbrushes, their duty was to clean _all_ the rooms in the Sledge Hammer base. Which would have been somewhat possible, except that they didn't get any soap or water. Somehow, Kris thought that everyone knew what she had done, but decided to endure her punishment nonetheless.

As Kris and Shane were scrubbing the walls in the science lab from miscellaneous slime, however, Kris felt the true extent of the punishment as Shane kept on talking, even after Kris had said 'shut up or I'll do unspeakable things with this toothbrush' for the umpteenth time.

"…and another thing that me and Cheren have in common is that we are both into computers," Shane babbled as he started to clean the computers. "Wait, did I say that already? Well, I bet you didn't know that Cheren is a hacker. He really is! So if there are some mofo's out there who I have a problem with, Cheren can totally hack into their Facebook accounts. That'll show 'em! Oh, and he's also _totally_ rich. I mean, he has an iPhone! Can you believe it? The only cellphone I ever had was the one I found from the dumpster a few weeks back. Hey, are you sure that this isn't _my_ toothbrush? Well, anyway, the other thing good about Cheren is…"

Kris stopped scrubbing and wondered if she could sharpen the toothbrush and use it to pierce her jugular.

A sudden '_whoosh_' sound was heard as the science lab's doors (not unlike the ones found on the Enterprise) were opened and Doctor Toshiko Araragi, the head of the Sledge Hammer's science team stepped in. Though she was in her late forties, the brown-haired doctor spent every day in work in attempt to look attractive. The local technician, Celio, even had a nickname for her, though Araragi didn't have time to find out what 'MILF' meant. Today was different, it seemed, as she didn't have makeup on, and even more strangely, was smoking a cigarette.

"Hello there, doctor!" Shane said and stood up to salute the lady.

Araragi shrieked and quickly threw her cigarette away, until realizing that only Kris and Shane were present in the lab.

"Oh, hi… you," Araragi said and decided not to bother remembering their names. "Cleaning?"

"Yeah, obviously enough! The janitor appears to busy, with his constant skipping work and all," Kris grumbled.

"Don't mind her, doctor, she's having some… neurological issues."

And as he said it, Shane pointed at his head and stuck his tongue out, pretending to have a seizure. This did not go well with Kris, who threw Shane with her toothbrush. It hit Shane in the neck.

"Ouch!" Shane whined and rubbed his neck.

"Damn, I forgot to sharpen it," Kris said, disappointed that no blood was spraying from Shane's throat.

Araragi sighed and rubbed her forehead. Her hangover wasn't exactly helped by those two tweens shouting and shrieking. She decided to ignore the operatives and walked directly towards her office, where she hoped to spend the day sleeping with her sunglasses on. First, she decided to check if Leaf was still working.

"Hey, you two!" Araragi shouted at Kris and Shane. "Did you clean Dr. Greene's office?"

"Nah, it's locked," Kris said. "We did hear sounds, but… I don't think you should go in there, ma'am."

"Screw that, this is my lab!" Araragi insisted and dug a key from her pocket. "Good thing I had this made. I wanna know what she's doing, and her shift is over anyway…"

Kris and Shane continued their scrubbing as Araragi walked to the door of Leaf's office. Without bothering to listen to the muffled sounds coming from the office or even knocking on the door, Araragi turned the key into the electric lock, and the door slid open. Immediately, screaming was heard:

"_Stop it! How many times do I have to tell you? It's over! O-V-E-R! God, you're persistent!_"

"_But hey, that's why you like me, right_?"

"_GET OUT!_"

Brazenly, looking like he had been elected the president of the entire world, Silver walked out, looking infuriatingly cocky. For once, he wasn't scowling or looking grumpy, but was actually smiling. He pretended to look surprised when he saw Araragi, Kris and Shane, but in reality, it was most likely that he knew that they would come.

"Oh, hi, don't mind us, doc," Silver said and bowed to Araragi in an annoying fashion. "We were simply discussing important work-related matters, and… LOOK OUT!"

Silver dodged when Leaf threw a stapler towards him. Instead, it flew across the room and hit Shane in the forehead, causing him to grunt in pain.

"_Ouch! _WHY ME?" he wailed.

"See you guys later!" Silver said and grinned smugly as he left the science lab.

Kris, Shane and Araragi peeked into Leaf's office. They then recoiled and looked away immediately when they saw Leaf hastily buttoning her shirt and tying her hair. Araragi snorted.

"Working hard for the money, huh?" she asked.

"It's not what it looks like!" Leaf objected and grabbed her lab coat, which had somehow been hurled on the bookshelf. "We got to talking and Silver was like he always is. A…"

"A player?" Araragi smirked when Leaf couldn't finish the sentence.

Leaf felt herself blushing and turned to turn off her computer as an excuse not to look at the others. Shane, who had a bump on his forehead where the stapler struck him, was still a bit disoriented and confused, though that was nothing new.

"So what was going on in here?" he asked.

Araragi rolled her eyes and Kris let out an annoyed groan.

"Really, Shane?" she asked. "A hundred thousand sperms and _you_ were the fastest?"

"Um… you were Kris, weren't you?" Leaf asked Kris as she grabbed her briefcase, her face still bright red. "Can you… walk with me to the parking lot?"

"Whatever, as long as I don't have to keep doing this," Kris muttered and threw the toothbrush away.

"Hey, that's Sledge Hammer property, you'll pay for that!" Araragi snarled.

"Let's go," Kris said to Leaf.

The two started walking down the aisles of Sledge Hammer's underground complex, making their way past Celio's terminal and out from the facility entirely, entering the maintenance elevator that led to the surface. Once both Kris and Leaf were in the elevator, Leaf started to talk:

"Early morning today, huh?" she said nervously, attempting to make a conversation.

"Yeah…" Kris yawned and started to stretch her arms. "I haven't even had my freaking coffee yet…"

"There should be some left in the kitchen," Leaf muttered. "You know, they could probably use some cleaning down there too… if the chef has already arrived to work… he usually gets here at seven… probably…"

"Mm," Kris replied without thinking much.

There was an uncomfortable pause, and there was no literally no sounds to be heard besides Kris' and Leaf's breathing. The elevator ran completely silently, and yet, despite the futuristic machinery that the Sledge Hammer base had, it also ran _excruciatingly_ slowly.

The awkwardness simply continued on… and on… and on…

The elevator arrived to the 10th underground floor, and Kris was wondering how in the hell could the base be so big… or did time just pass so slowly? Leaf kept on closing and opening her mouth, as if trying to gather courage to speak up.

9th floor now.

"Kris…" Leaf said finally. "I… um…"

"Let's speed things up a bit," Kris said impatiently. "You want to talk about Silver. Fine, but you should know that I really, _really_ don't care that much."

"Well, I appreciate your honesty," Leaf sighed. "But… it's just that… we split up a long time ago, we didn't really get along and something in Silver… changed."

"Or he showed his true colors, and he was merely putting on a show from the moment you met him," Kris suggested.

"No!" Leaf objected, but didn't sound very certain. "No, it … well, maybe, but I don't think he… hmm. Anyway, do you think… maybe, even though I really hate his guts, I also, on some level, want to bring out the nice side of him which disappeared all those years ago? Maybe I still want to be with him… but does he want to be with me? He refuses to leave me alone, but then again, he's so damn _mean_… I don't really know…"

"Well, neither do I," Kris said. "And I don't care either. But hey, ask me about anything else. Why are people born with appendixes? Do I like PCs or Macs better? Which is better, _Ark_ or _Crusade_? Why are there so many legendary Pokémon? Could Arceus play a guitar solo so mind-blowing that it could melt the heads of everyone, and if it could, could I play one? And why do people smell so bad?"

"You really know about a lot of things, Kris," Leaf said.

"I don't know anything, I just like arguing about things," Kris replied.

A loud '_ping_!' was heard when the elevator stopped, and the doors slid open. Kris and Leaf stepped outside, only to feel the chilling winter air in their lungs as they inhaled. Kris realized that she wasn't really dressed for going outside, while Leaf had gloves and a scarf. As if on cue, it started to snow the moment Leaf and Kris stepped out.

"S-so, L-leaf," Kris shuddered and crossed her arms tightly to keep herself warm. "Um… w-where is your c-car?"

"I don't have one," Leaf replied and took a Poké Ball from her pocket.

When Leaf opened it, a fiery, horse-like Pokémon came out accompanied by a bright red flash. Snow melted off around Leaf's Ponyta, and Kris took a few steps closer to it to avoid freezing to death. She immediately started enjoying the warmth that the Ponyta brought. The Ponyta, already equipped with a saddle and rein obediently still as Leaf mounted it, as if she rode to work every day.

"I didn't know you had a Ponyta…" Kris said.

"Don't mention it to Araragi or anyone," Leaf said sadly. "I used to keep an Oddish around as a pet, and it didn't take long for them to take it for experiments. I still haven't gotten it back. I use this Ponyta to ride to Goldenrod, where I take the Magnet Train to Saffron. From there, I don't want to strain the poor Pokémon too much, so I usually take a bus to Pewter."

"You live all the way there?" Kris wondered. "Sheesh, when you finally get back home, you probably have to start getting back to work…"

"Almost, yeah," Leaf sighed. "Well, see you later, Kris. It was good talking to you."

"Yeah, sure, whatever…"

Kris quickly returned inside when she saw Leaf riding away from the base.

A couple of minutes later, she found herself in the kitchen, once again scrubbing walls and floors with Shane. Though the work was hard, she at least got to know more members of the staff. The chef was a bald, short, pudgy and relatively quiet man called Cal, whose other duties besides cooking were cleaning, maintenance and sometimes security when he had to fill in for other security guards.

Along with Cal, sitting on a table and listening to the radio was someone who neither Kris nor Shane had seen before. She looked like a young girl, barely eighteen years old, with blonde hair and green eyes. Though she also wore the blue Sledge Hammer jumpsuit like most of the staff, this girl also wore the strangest green hat, like a beret of sorts. And, while it was February and the floor was cold, the girl didn't seem to be concerned with walking around barefoot. She didn't seem to be concerned about _anything_ at all as she kept harassing Cal with questions as the latter tried to do his work:

"So what does _this_ thing do?" the girl asked.

"It's a blender, obviously," Cal grunted.

"Okay, but what does _this_ thing do?"

"It's a waffle iron, Bel, now, please, let me do my job!" Cal said in attempt to chop onions while listening to the radio and answering Bel's questions at the same time.

"Just tell me one thing: what does _this _thing do?"

"It's the same blender again…"

Kris and Shane approached Cal and the girl. Right after noticing the duo, Bel jumped off the table and rushed to introduce herself. Though Kris was quite petite herself, she was probably a head taller than her.

"Ohmygosh, hi!" the girl said before neither Kris nor Shane could say anything and shook hands with both of them. "I'm Bel, and it's so cool to finally meet the operatives I've been hearing so much about. I heard you took on Heatran! Is that true?"

Bel stared at the duo wide-eyed and was breathing sharply, expecting a response.

"Well," Kris started, "it didn't go quite as-"

"Yes, of course we took it on!" Shane announced proudly and shoved Kris aside. "We were in the belly of the volcano, magma flowing all over us. Everyone passed out in the heat, but it was thanks to me and my Sandshrew that we were able to bet that magma frog. I wrestled it down on the ground with my bare hands, I even bit a part of its ear!"

"Ear?" Kris asked.

"That is so awesome!" Bel exclaimed cheerfully. "What I would give to become an Extranormal Operative. I can't believe you two came all the way here just to take a look at grease monkeys like me and Cal!"

"Hey!" Cal objected. "If it wasn't for me, you all would starve!"

"So what are you making today, Cal?" Shane asked.

"Onion soup," Cal said. "It's my secret recipe," he continued and waved a note in front of the group.

Shane quickly snatched the piece of paper from Cal.

"'_Onions, water, maybe salt_'" Shane read. "'_Instructions: peel and chop onions, put in big pot with water and salt. Cook for four hours on maximum heat. Throw away. Order pizzas._'"

"Well, they're making pretty rough budget cuts, and provisions suffered the most," Cal explained. "Just look at the onions I have to use!"

Shane picked up one onion from an enormous bucket, and when he gave it a slight squeeze, it disintegrated into mush. Kris started to feel nauseous upon seeing this, but Bel continued on being her usual, chirpy self. She sat on the table again and still continued to stare longingly at Kris and Shane while swinging her legs about.

"You guys are so lucky," she said, "I wonder when they're going to make me an Operative…"

"So what do you, Bel?" Kris asked.

"I'm in the medic department," Bel explained and kept on smiling creepily. "So during field operations, we sometimes hang out nearby to resuscitate you if we have to. Don't worry, guys, I'm an excellent medic. I carry aspirin with me at all times."

"Good, in case I get my hands chopped off, I'll come running to you and your aspirin then," Kris deadpanned.

But Bel didn't notice the sarcasm, but her face just got brighter and her smile even wider.

"You really would?" she asked. "No one's ever trusted me before… some even call me clumsy… but you would actually rely on me to save you, you… what was your name again?"

"I'm Kris," Kris said, "and this Shane-"

But that's all Kris got to say when Bel jumped off the table and rushed to hug her, knocking over the bucket full of onions and spilling them on the ground. She simply giggled at her mistake after letting go of Kris.

"Oh, whoopsie," she laughed. "Well, you're a good cook, Cal, you'll sort it out."

"How did you end up working here, Bel?" Kris asked.

"I actually grew up in Kanoko," Bel said and started reminisce. "I was in the same school as Touko White, so-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Kris interrupted. "Hold the phone! How old are you again?"

"Oh, I'm twenty-nine," Bel said, not at all minding the interruption. "Can't believe it, huh? Shall I go on?"

"Sure…"

"Anyway, Touko was in the same class… I also remember others… Touya was there definitely… as was this really cool-looking guy called Cheren Black."

"You know Cheren Black?" Shane said enthusiastically and Kris let out an anguished groan. "Did you remember the time when…"

And this went on. And on. And on. And… well, you get the idea. Many, many hours later, Kris and Shane had scrubbed both sides of the Sledge Hammer HQ from top to bottom. Shane was so insistent on talking about Cheren Black that he seemed to ignore Kris entirely, though Kris couldn't really tell whether Shane was just being himself or if he was genuinely upset at Kris.

At the end of the day, Kris returned to her room, and loads and loads of questions circled around her mind. What was the purpose of the implants put in the brains of the operatives? Why couldn't the operatives leave the perimeter for other purposes than missions? What was the true nature of that little 'Darkrai incident' in Canalave? What was the true agenda of Sledge Hammer and Extranormal Operations? Hell, _why was the organization called _the 'Sledge Hammer' Intelligence Team anyway? Was professor Kaminko just a major Peter Gabriel fan?

Kris watched her Totodile, Croc, splashing in the makeshift bathtub that Kris had prepared for it, using a big pot that Cal had given her. Though this random act of kindness was nice, Kris couldn't help but to notice the feeling of getting ignored by basically everyone in the staff besides Cal. Though work-related things often popped up, very few members of the staff actively stopped for a decent conversation.

Whenever Kris tried to talk to the resident tech-head, Celio, she was usually coldly pushed off, though this was apparently how Celio treated everyone. Doctor Araragi was always too busy to talk. Leaf was more sociable, apparently, but always wanted to talk about Silver, which was just as infuriating as Shane constantly yammering on and on about Black. Silver and White also treated Kris coldly, and even professor Elm, one of the few people Kris had known beforehand, never seemed to have time for a good chat. The biggest question mark of them all was this mysterious Touya. Where did he come from? How did everyone just assume his death, only for him to suddenly come back?

And, of course, the major question that continued to pop in Kris' mind was this: '_Was joining this organization really worth it_?'. Was it? The invasive surgery, the loss of privacy, loss of freedom… all this for a higher cause and job protection for life. Was it worth it?

Kris would never know, because it was too late to go back now. And it's not like she had anything else to do. Right now, she just wanted to sleep and hope to have a more interesting day tomorrow. She turned off the lights, but the splashing continued nonetheless.

"CROC!" Kris screamed at her Pokémon. "If you don't stop that, I've got a few people in need of a good handbag!"

Finally, Croc stopped splashing. But Kris could hear the Pokémon mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like death threats.


	3. Nightmare Plains

NIGHTMARE PLAINS

**Jubilife City, Sinnoh  
**_February 15__th__, 9:45 AM_

Lyra had arrived to Sinnoh, but her progress was soon blocked by the bureaucracy at the tollbooth. Some sort of private security company was taking advantage of the situation in Canalave, and had built a tollbooth that cut off access to Route 218. Lyra was currently in the midst of arguing with an annoyingly smug security guard.

"I'm going to put this nicely," Lyra said, seconds away from blowing a fuse, "let me in there or I'll do unspeakable things with that nightstick of yours! I'm warning you!"

"Look, lady, you're more than welcome to venture in there," the guard said, "just pay the fee!"

While talking, the guard pointed at the thick fog behind the tollbooth, completely obscuring visibility. There was nothing to see at the west side of Jubilife besides the fog. Lyra was all to aware that the guard was much taller and stronger than her, and also knew that intelligence department would not approve of Lyra suddenly deciding to whip out a Poké Ball and burning the guard's face off. So, she submitted to her fate and left the gate, grumbling to herself:

"How am I gonna get there now… I need to get to Fullmoon… or at least Canalave… damn it…"

"Hey! You! With the overalls!"

Lyra turned around wildly, nearly reaching for the gun hidden in her pocket. She looked around her on the busy streets of Jubilife, but at first, didn't detect the source of the sound who called for her. Finally, when looking past the faceless masses that walked past her, Lyra saw someone sitting outside a coffee house, waving at her.

Lyra used her elbows to get past the hordes of pedestrians to get to the café, then finally saw the face of the woman who called for her. The woman looked familiar to Lyra, but she wasn't quite able to point out how. The lady was nevertheless very tall, though her long, blonde hair almost matched that length. She certainly made an effort to look stylish, based on her all-black wardrobe, especially the open longcoat with fur decorations and strange hair decorations resembling an Umbreon's ear. The woman motioned Lyra to sit next to her, which she did, albeit mystified.

"Welcome to Jubilife, Lyra," the woman said. "I've been expecting you."

"I would like to say the same," Lyra said, constantly staring at the woman, whose hair covered her other, gray eye entirely, "but unfortunately, I don't know who I'm talking to. And how did you know my name?"

The woman smiled and raised an eyebrow, though her small gray eye seemed lifeless, and her voice sounded almost forcibly serene as she spoke.

"Your organization could use a bigger budget," the woman smiled, "you flew in the third class, for crying out loud, along with the rejects of the society."

"I didn't even know there was a third class," Lyra said and rubber her back. "But that flight was _painful_! My back is so sore, and let's not even begin talking about my ass!"

Lyra seemed to realize what she was speaking, because her voice quietly faded away after that. Embarrassed, Lyra looked in the other way, only to notice a Mr. Mime approaching their table, carrying two coffee cups. The blonde woman pretended that she didn't hear the last remark, and gave the Mr. Mime some money. As the Pokémon turned to leave, the woman's smile faded and she looked almost sad as she watched it go.

"I wonder," she said, "did that Pokémon choose to work here? Does it get paid? Does it have any rights, or is the coffee shop's keeper just trying to save a few lousy poké-dollars…"

The woman forced a smile on her face again before turning to Lyra, who took a sip from her cup. She was wary, especially after Blaine's endless lectures about enemies sipping knockout drops to your drinks. But this person seemed reliable, and oddly familiar too…

"I took the liberty of ordering us something," the woman said. "I doubt you operatives have the luxury of, say, eating or drinking anything while working. Unless you do it at your own expense, of course. My name is Cynthia, by the way, so you can stop staring."

Lyra almost dropped her cup, and spilled hot coffee all over her overalls. But right now, she didn't care much. That blonde, mystical woman… of course it was Cynthia! Still, Lyra couldn't help herself:

"_The _Cynthia?" she squealed. "I remember, when I was just a little girl, I always stayed up late watching your battles. The way you actually became Champion… wow! That Ancotti guy didn't stand a chance. I'm surprised that there isn't a rabid horde of fans after you already!"

Cynthia smiled calmly as she took a sip of coffee herself.

"I'm a regular in this place," Cynthia explained. "Besides, the public opinion on people working for the Pokémon League has become… mixed. That's not really why I am here, though. I was supposed to-"

"Do you still have that Garchomp?" Lyra asked, almost jumping up and down in her seat. "I have always wanted one! You gotta show it to me, please! Please? Pretty please?"

Cynthia tried to sound calm and patient, but found it increasingly difficult.

"I am here to help you!" Cynthia exclaimed loudly.

Lyra snapped herself back to reality, as difficult as it was. Meeting with an actual Champion had put everything else out of her mind, but it was all coming back to her. How _did_ she know who Lyra worked for? No one had mentioned anything about it… maybe it was best to remember the instructions… but there was no time to start reading the booklet now!

As if she was reading Lyra's thoughts, Cynthia had something to say:

"You don't have to put my head in a bucket or anything. Being the Champion, I have been informed about your mission. Technically, I was not supposed to get involved, but I have some important things that need taken care of… as do you. I'll scratch your back and you'll scratch mine, deal?"

"Right here?" Lyra asked, then came to her senses. "I mean, yes, sure, absolutely! Say… why are you here and not at the Pokémon League?"

Cynthia leaned back on her chair and stared the gray sky above them. She didn't seem to mind the cold much.

"I admit that I sometimes get bored of being the Champion," she sighed. "So much bureaucracy, responsibility, so much endless PR and interviews. My fruity friend Lucian is taking care of those things at the moment. I'm currently here to do business."

"What kind of business?" Lyra wondered. "The Champion has to do those kinds of things?"

Cynthia sighed again, and though she kept smiling serenely, Lyra could pick up the annoyed tone of her voice.

"This isn't related to that," Cynthia said emphatically. "Nowadays, I treat this Champion thing as a hobby at best. At first, it was nice to be noticed… to be admired… but at some point, it loses its charm. The burden starts to feel heavy. You begin to question yourself: I am the Champion, how can I do this or that? All the hype is making me… well, I'll try not to get too worked up. I don't even live in Sinnoh! I come here if someone actually goes far enough to beat the Elite Four and challenge me… but let's be realistic: when was the last time _that_ happened? No, my real job is…"

"What?" Lyra asked.

Lyra was confused and slightly irritated: this was not how she imagined her idol to be like. If _Lyra _was the Champion, she'd probably keel down and praise the Original One every single day. Absorbed in her delusions of grandeur, Lyra almost missed what Cynthia said next after contemplating her answer.

"Research," Cynthia said flatly. "And though the Celestic Museum sometimes gives me financial support, I do that work for things besides fame and fortune. Something more important."

"So what do you need to do?"

Cynthia leaned forward in her chair, and made sure no one was around to hear her. Though some people curiously turned their heads in her direction while passing by, they mostly left Cynthia alone, allowing her to talk in private.

"Have you heard about this anarchist?" Cynthia asked. "His name is Palmer… just read this!"

Cynthia passed Lyra a newspaper, and Lyra folded it open and skimmed to the correct page, ignoring the first ten pages, which were mostly ads and columns peppered with more ads.

"Ah, here it is!" Lyra exclaimed after finding the right page, where she was greeted with a large picture of a tall, blonde-haired man with thick eyebrows, a green longcoat and a bizarre, spiky haircut. Just what kind of hairspray was the man using?

"_Barry Palmer_," Lyra read, "_the world-famous Tower Tycoon, 44, is revealed to be an informant and anarchist. Mr. Palmer is revealed to be the mysterious webmaster of stickingittotheman dot com. The website in question has for years leaked important government data, threatening world peace and encouraging anarchy. Even after the MegaNet-sponsored Internet Quality Control purge, our web-privileged residents have still been forced to struggle with inflammatory material that he has leaked_."

"_Currently, Mr. Palmer is wanted for sexual assault, which he totally is guilty of and if you disagree, you're guilty of thoughtcrime. Our private security companies will do whatever they can to stop this dangerous lunatic for a modest price. With a bonus, they'll even bring you his skull for evidence!_"

Lyra put down the paper.

"So, some troll is on the loose, big deal," Lyra said. "If this was supposed to warn me, then rest assured, I'd be more worried for _his _safety should he meet me in a dark alley."

"Sure," Cynthia smiled, "but that was not the point. According to that relatively biased article, Palmer also has connections to Team Plasma."

"I've heard of 'em," Lyra said. "And?" she added.

"I happen to know Palmer, and we were friends once," Cynthia said. "I have been tracking his movements ever since. He's been attempting to hide his tracks ever since. He's good, but fortunately for us, I am better. He and some suspicious people stole a boat from the docks near Floaroma Town a few hours ago."

"How heinous," Lyra deadpanned. "_So_?"

"They went to Fullmoon Island, Lyra!" Cynthia snapped when Lyra was still unresponsive. "Aren't you here to put a stop to Darkrai?"

Lyra's eyes narrowed and she started staring at Cynthia again. With some help from the local Champion, Lyra could actually get to the bottom of this. She could imagine the look on Kris' face when she would mention meeting the Sinnoh Champion. That, and there was no way Lyra could fail now that the Champion herself was with her. _The friggin' Champion!_

"Yes! I am!" Lyra exclaimed, not wanting to know how Cynthia got _that_ info. "Yes, let's go!"

* * *

**Fullmoon Island, Sinnoh**

About an hour later, Cynthia's Togekiss, carrying Cynthia and Lyra on its back, descended on the steady surface of Fullmoon Island. Though Cynthia hopped off Togekiss' back effortlessly, Lyra's face had a greenish tint, and she was staggering a bit when she hopped off.

"I… do we have to fly _back_ as well?" Lyra muttered, afraid that if she would open her mouth more, she would vomit.

Cynthia decided not to answer to this question as she ventured forward, towards the center of the island. Lyra followed, and the two walked on a zigzagging path that had been recently cleared through the forest, as evident by the piles of leaves and branches underneath their feet. Cynthia explained the situation as she walked.

"Team Plasma is still here," she said. "I can feel it."

"You sure, ma'am?"

"What?" Cynthia snapped, stopped walking and stared down at Lyra. "Don't call me '_ma'am_', okay? Call me Cynthia!"

"Y-yes… Cynthia!" Lyra stuttered. "Sorry!"

When Cynthia resumed talking, she took long, determined steps, forcing Lyra to almost run to keep up with her. Lyra avoided talking, as she didn't want to come across as a fool in the eyes of the great Cynthia… the champion… her lifelong idol.

"But… Cynthia," Lyra huffed exhaustedly, "what do they… want from here?"

"They're after Cresselia," Cynthia said. "Obvious, really. There's nothing else here. Look!"

Cynthia stopped quickly and raised her arm, immediately causing Lyra to halt as well. The path stopped, and the duo was now stopped by a thick, tall shrubbery. There were still obvious tracks: someone had just recently went through the bushes, and both Lyra and Cynthia could hear muffled talking. Cynthia signaled Lyra to keep quiet, and sneaked behind a tree. Lyra followed her example.

"Listen carefully, Lyra," Cynthia whispered. "They're hopelessly trapped in here. There must be many of them, so we can't just take them on with our Pokémon. I'll go back to the beach and make sure they can't flee using their boats. Then, I'll head back to Sinnoh and get the police to help us. You stay here and find out what they want. Got it?"

"Wait!"

Cynthia was about to leave, but Lyra grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"You can't do that," Lyra whispered sharply. "This is my chance to show the bosses that I can actually do something, I can't just call the police and call it a day. Besides, Kris would laugh at me!"

"Who?"

"Never mind," Lyra said. "We need to come up with a plan B."

"Well, I would go to Canalave and get help from Byron and his gym trainers," Cynthia muttered, "but it's kinda impossible to go there now, don't you think?"

"Obviously enough," Lyra sighed, "so just get help from somewhere. Other gym leaders! Townspeople! Creepy hobos! Anyone will do, just go and get help quickly. Um… please?"

"All right, all right," Cynthia said and turned around nervously, worried that the Plasmas would hear Lyra's loud talking. "Just remember: if they see you, don't try to fight them. Just stay hidden."

"Yeah, yeah…"

Cynthia nodded and quickly disappeared into the forest, heading towards the shore. Lyra didn't want to waltz in to spy on the Plasmas without protection, so she opened the only Poké Ball she had with her.

Scorch, Lyra's Cyndaquil, popped out. Lyra quickly raised her finger on her lips, signaling the Pokémon to be quiet, and the two sneaked into the clearing through the shrubbery

What Lyra saw next almost made her gasp from terror, but she quickly restrained herself. She and Scorch watched as about a dozen Team Plasma grunts waltzed around a dark, closed-off section of the forest, dressed in similar bluish gray uniforms, similar to the ones worn by the knights in the Middle Ages. What was also amazing that unlike in all the other villainous teams, the female members didn't have to wear miniskirts or skin-tight uniforms, but everyone wore the same uniforms.

In the clearing, there was a small, crescent-shaped pond, and what floated above the pond was the thing that really took Lyra's breath away: the most gorgeous-looking Pokémon, shaped like a giant, blue swan, only with a yellow underside, two yellow ornaments on the side of its head (causing its head t resemble a crescent moon) and three pink, ring-shaped wings, two on its sides and a third on its back. Lyra muted her Pokétch, then scanned the beautiful Pokémon silently.

"_Cresselia, the Lunar Pokémon. The only one of its kind, it represents the crescent moon. Those who sleep holding her feather are said to dream of only joyful things. Shiny particles are released from her wings whenever she flies, leaving behind a beautiful veil._"

Lyra watched as the Cresselia floated a few inches above the pond, and about six members of Team Plasma had it surrounded, aiming it with guns and each having a Houndour besides them, ready to attack. Cresselia was obviously awake and conscious, so Lyra wondered why the Pokémon didn't just kill all the Plasma Grunts immediately - surely it could beat six measly Houndour?

Standing on the edge of the pond, watching the Cresselia, were two other men that stood out in the midst of the Team Plasma grunts. Both tall, the other was an old man with platinum-blonde hair and a huge, decorative robe on him. The other wore a Team Rocket uniform and had black hair and an oddly large handlebar moustache.

"Look at it, Fernando," said the older man, Goetis, the de facto leader of Team Plasma, who was admiring Cresselia's grace. "Isn't that just the most beautiful legendary Pokémon you've ever seen?"

"Gee, Mr. Goetis," Fernando said, "considering all those hundreds of legendaries I have seen over the years-"

"All right, fair enough. Let's get down to business, shall we?"

"We shall!" Fernando announced theatrically.

Fernando and Goetis stepped away from the pond, and Fernando took a piece of crumbled paper from his pocket. Goetis scowled, but nevertheless tried to take the paper from Fernando. But Fernando suddenly started to juggle with it, then squeezed it tightly and placed his hand behind his back.

"All right, in my other hand I have the documents you wanted," Fernando announced, causing Goetis and some of the Plasma Grunts to groan, "and in my other hand, I have some suspicious goo I found from my pocket. You have one guess. Go on, which hand?"

"We don't have time for this, Fernando!" Goetis snarled and forcibly grabbed the paper from the melodramatic Rocket. "We had to wait your arrival or three hours straight! Is this just Giovanni's way of raising a middle finger at us?"

"Sure," Fernando said and shrugged. "That and I also stopped at this awesome restaurant in Celestic Town. You wouldn't _believe_ how good the roasted bore was in there. They gave portions in these big cups, and the sauce was-"

"What the hell is this?"

Goetis had ignored Fernando's talking, and instead had opened the paper that he grabbed from Fernando.

"This doesn't look like blueprints," Goetis muttered. "Just some text: '_Death flies over me, like a pink Butterfree, oh, in this crowded emptiness, I feel alone, all surrounded by people, this white blackness of my dark, illuminated soul, I cry tears of sorrow and joy_'-"

Fernando quickly snatched the paper away from Goetis.

"Whoops, sorry," he stuttered and started looking for the blueprints. "That was just… some of my poetry… just a little drabble, nothing big… ah, here!"

Goetis took the actual paper from Fernando, and as he read the blueprints, a gleaming smile appeared on his face, exposing his yellow teeth.

"Ah, the Genesect blueprints…" Goetis whispered. "I've been waiting for these… how did you manage to get these from good ol' Kaminko?"

"Easy, really," Fernando said and smiled smugly. "The security chief, Blaine, was so concentrated on doing a comprehensive cavity search that he actually forgot to look in my pockets. My plan worked perfectly… until I realized later on that I had left the blueprints in a bus. But nonetheless, I got them back for you!"

"I'm surprised Giovanni gave these up," Goetis said as he folded the blueprints and put them in his pocket.

"You know him?" Fernando asked.

"Just tell him that Gottlieb said hi," Goetis said. "Can you manage that?"

"Uh… sure," Fernando said. "Well… see ya!"

"I hope not."

Lyra had heard enough. Once she had made sure that Fernando had left the clearing, she quickly ducked to avoid being spotted by Goetis or the Plasmas and reached for her Pokétch. She hadn't quite understood what was going on, only that Team Plasma owned something that belonged to Kaminko.

But just as Lyra was about to contact HQ, someone or something grabbed her by the throat and pulled her up from the bushes. Scorch took a swift dive into the bushes to avoid detection, and could only watch helplessly as Lyra was pulled up by none other than Fernando, who held the struggling Lyra in his grip.

"Hey, guys, look at this!" Fernando announced. "That's one, big-ass berry…"

Goetis and a few Team Plasma grunts looked interested, and approached Lyra. She was still in Fernando's grip, and flailed helplessly in mid-air - how the hell could Fernando's grip be so unrealistically strong?

"The Original One would not approve!" Goetis scolded Fernando. "Let her down!"

"Why do people always pick the dumbest things to say?" Fernando wondered.

He let go of Lyra - dropping her down on the ground. For a few seconds, Lyra could only gasp for air and rub her neck. It took a while for Lyra to finally be able to talk:

"How did you spot me?" she croaked, still gasping for air.

"It was this stupid hat of yours," Fernando said and snatched Lyra's huge, puffy marshmallow-hat. "I mean, what were you thinking? That hat totally doesn't match those overalls!"

"That hat will be the death of me…" Lyra muttered.

"Indeed it will," Fernando said and grinned at the prospect of getting to hold a dramatic speech, "literally!" he added. "Ladies and gentlemen - especially the former - of Team Plasma, behold! I have caught an Extranormal Operative! They're once again trying to stop our intricately planned yet surprisingly well-functional and deliciously secretive plans!"

"How do you know she's an operative?" Goetis asked, staring at Lyra and making her feel uncomfortable - especially without her hat.

"Please, I'm no amateur," Fernando said. "It's the way she moves, the way she talks, the way she walks and the way she… chalks. That surprisingly arrogant yet overall confused way she carries out the orders of her superiors without thinking twice. Oh, and I've also been spying on them for the past few months. And stuff."

"Just think what Kaminko will do when he hears that one of his precious operatives is gone," Goetis muttered as he constantly stared at Lyra, without blinking at all. Lyra tried to avoid eye contact with Goetis the best she could. "But I fear that if she was able to find us, our operation might be exposed. We must move at once!"

"Aw, but I wanted to kill someone!" Fernando complained. "Come on, it won't take long, I promise!"

"No!" Goetis shouted, causing Fernando to back down. "Are you insane?"

"Well, according to the doctors-"

"We're not stooping to their level!" Goetis insisted. "Not to mention yours. My friends may have a different modus operandi than me, but I say we keep her with us for the moment. I don't care what you do, Fernando, but we need to carry on with our plan. If it fails, we need a leverage against Kaminko."

"You guys are such party poopers," Fernando whined.

Lyra had enough - she didn't know what anyone was talking about, but she would not surrender to a bunch of crooks like some helpless damsel in distress.

"Well, toots, it's been a blast," Fernando said to Lyra while still holding her arm in his grip. "See ya later, and - OUCH!"

While being held in the ground, Lyra kicked Fernando right in the face, struggling herself free from his grip. Several Plasma grunts started to approach her, but she was certain that Scorch was still around.

"SCORCH!" she screamed. "FLAMETHROWER!"

And then Lyra dodged when Scorch blasted a long tongue of fire towards the Plasmas, forcing them to retreat. One Plasma Grunt's clothes caught on fire and he was forced to run screaming into the pond.

"Sic the dogs on her!" a Plasma Grunt shouted.

But Lyra's Cyndaquil stepped away from the bushes and, despite its puny size, stepped heroically in front of its master to protect her. Lyra readied her Pokétch and aimed at the three Houndour approaching them.

"No way you're doing this alone, Scorch!" she told her Pokémon. "A joint Swift in three, okay? Three… oh, the hell with it! NOW!"

Both Lyra and her Cyndaquil fired sharp, star-shaped projectiles towards the various Plasma Grunts. The stars tore their uniforms apart, slicing deep wounds into their flesh. The Houndour, however, dodged the various projectiles and still kept approaching. Lyra kept using at Swift at the Houndour, but Scorch wasn't as quick as her and soon the Houndour surrounded it, as if to start gnawing on the poor Cyndaquil to tear it apart.

"Hey!" Lyra shrieked and started to tear the Houndour away from Scorch. "LEAVE! SCORCH! ALONE!"

At that point, Scorch started to glow, and the Houndour had to retreat one at a time. The bright light blinded everyone in the vicinity, but Lyra could not take her eyes off the magnificent sight, when her Cyndaquil started to grow taller and slimmer. It now stood upright, its eyes were open and it seemed to have grown some sort of fiery 'hair'. The newly evolved Quilava hissed viciously at the Houndour, who were now too afraid to approach it.

"Whoa…" Lyra said, briefly awestruck by the sudden evolution, but eventually she snapped out of it. "Oh, right! No time for scanning, I know it's a Quilava!"

"Houndour, Flamethrower!" three Plasma Grunts yelled simultaneously.

"Scorch, dodge!"

But her Quilava stood still, staring at the Houndour intently. The fiery attacks simply bounced away from Quilava's body, and it didn't seem to mind the attacks at all.

"Awesome…" Lyra said to herself. "Okay, Scorch! Eruption!"

Lyra had always wanted to see this move in practice, and Quilava simply nodded obediently. It fired a stream of red-orange fire from the flame of its head, sweeping all the Houndour in the vicinity away with a single blast. More of them tried to attack Quilava, but it simply scratched and kicked them away, and defeated all six without even having to move anywhere. The clearing was now littered with unconscious and wounded Houndour, and their owners were not in any better shape, some having their clothes burned from Quilava's attack.

Fernando, who was observing things on the background, decided to get the hell away as soon as possible, realizing that things were heating up. He disappeared into the dark forest around them, and no one seemed to notice that he did.

The Plasma Grunts still guarding Cresselia around the pond started moving around anxiously, wanting to help their comrades fight Lyra, but Goetis raised his hand to stop them.

"No!" he yelled. "Your job is to make sure Cresselia stays still. I'll handle this myself."

Goetis pushed his badly burned and wounded subordinates away and confronted Lyra. She had her arms crossed and she smirked victoriously while her Quilava stood next to her.

"Bring it on, I say!" Lyra said.

"I you want something done properly…" Goetis sighed. "I didn't want to stoop to this level, but you leave me no alternative. Zoroark, go!"

"The what now?"

Goetis said the last phrase and opened a Poké Ball so quickly that Lyra barely had time to react. She watched as a black, bipedal fox-like Pokémon appeared before her. Zoroark had a large, voluminous red mane, and three long and sharp claws at the end of both of its thin arms. Though fierce-looking and taller than Lyra herself, Lyra was still certain that Scorch could beat it. Too bad she had no idea what the hell it was, and there was no time for scanning now.

"Scorch, Flame Wheel!"

"Zoroark, Night Slash!"

Scorch surrounded itself with flames and charged towards the Zoroark, but was instantly knocked backwards when Zoroark scratched with its long claws. A bleeding, gaping wounded appeared in Scorch's underbelly, but it merely roared at the Zoroark. Goetis simply smiled and didn't even call out an attack. Zoroark exposed its fangs as it hissed at Scorch, and its eyes started glowing red. And if movies had taught Lyra anything, it was stupid to hang around anything with red, glowing eyes.

"Smokescreen!" Lyra yelled quickly, while similarly activating her own Smokescreen from her Pokétch.

A thick cloud of black smoke appeared in the middle of the clearing, and Goetis had to avert his eyes. Lyra took this split-second opportunity to quickly run in the other direction. Scorch followed closely behind, but oddly enough, Lyra found herself running even faster than it. Why hadn't she followed Cynthia's orders? She should have conjured that Smokescreen immediately.

For some reason, Scorch started to run even slower, and it eventually collapsed on the ground. Lyra let out a gasp of terror and quickly dragged her Quilava behind a tree, away from the eyes of the Plasmas. The Smokescreen was fading away, and Lyra could now see Plasma Grunts running around wildly in the distance.

Quilava was panting weakly, and Lyra checked its underbelly. The wound was even worse and Quilava's belly was not only covered with blood, but grass, leaves and dirt had gotten into the wound as well. Lyra panicked; what could she do now? She went through her pockets, hoping that she would have been smart enough to pack first aid kits or potions or anything… but no. She didn't even find her Poké Ball anywhere. Lyra cursed her bad luck quietly and looked wildly around her. The Smokescreen had faded completely now, and Lyra saw no signs of Team Plasma members anywhere. She tried picking Quilava up - it was heavier than Cyndaquil, but Lyra knew she could drag it away and into safety… but how the hell could she get off Fullmoon Island?

*_crack_*

The sound of someone stepping on dry branches was heard and Lyra quickly turned around. Much to her relief, it was Cynthia, who approached Lyra slowly.

"Oh, thank goodness, it's you!" Lyra said anxiously. "Quick, over here, it's my Pokémon, it's wounded!"

Cynthia kept on walking towards Lyra. As she got closer, Lyra couldn't help but to see that there was something wrong with her. The way Cynthia moved, the way she didn't say anything, the way her eyes seemed somewhat dead and lifeless. Cynthia stopped briefly to pick up a large, heavy stick from the ground, then started walking towards Lyra again.

"Cynthia?" Lyra said nervously when Cynthia kept on walking towards her with the stick in hand. "What are you-"

Cynthia swinging the stick in her direction was the last thing that Lyra remembered before everything went black.


	4. Scientia Est Lux Lucis

_**SCIENTIA EST LUX LUCIS**_

**Sledge Hammer HQ, the Laboratory**

_February 16__th__, 2097. 11:12 AM_

Two people sat in front of their computers in the monitoring room - Celio, the technician, and Ein, the staff doctor. Though they should have been working, Celio was currently downloading Minecraft on his terminal while Ein was updating his knowledge on the human anatomy.

"Oh, so the pancreas _is _important," he muttered while browsing Wikipedia. "Gee, I better call that last patient… well, I'll do it on the next break."

A familiar '_whoosh_' sound was again heard when the doors of the labs were opened. Celio and Ein quickly hid whatever they were doing and continued pretending to work. Their supervisor, drill instructor and operations manager Lieutenant Touko White had just stepped into the labs. Born in Unova, the tough-as-nails White was a woman in her late twenties, with curly brown hair, blue eyes and rather tomboyish clothing, consisting of a white cap, white top, black vest and blue shorts that were slightly torn and _very_ revealing, though White didn't seem to mind showing off her legs to everyone.

"Relax, guys," she told Ein and Celio. "I'm not going to tell the boss or anything. Well, I might do that just to piss you off, but I won't make a big deal of it."

"Gee, thanks, Lieutenant," Celio muttered.

"You're welcome," White deadpanned. "If you're ready to continue working again, then please be so kind and tell me what Lyra's status is. It's been two days and we haven't heard anything from her."

"Hang on, I'm trying to get this to work… stupid Vista," Celio mumbled while typing. "Let's see, agent six… hmm, no transmissions detected so far. The transmitting signal is very weak. Must be because of Darkrai. However, according to this, she should be at Fullmoon Island… but it might be an old signal."

"At least she's doing her job," White sighed. "Say, Ein, what about her life functions?"

"You're that worried about her?" Ein asked, surprised.

White snorted.

"Yeah, sure," she said sarcastically. "Oh, woe, as I stay up at nights, wondering about poor Lyra's fate. Hah! In all seriousness, I need to find if she's dead so I can get her DSi."

"Hmm…" Ein muttered as he also typed something on his computer, but nothing appeared on the monitors. "I can't get a clear reading. However, the chips are designed to cease transmitting should the agent's brain or heart stop working."

"Well then, if she's alive, she's fit to do her job," White said. "Normally, I would say 'keep up the good work'-"

"No you wouldn't, Lieutenant," Celio pointed out.

"-but now I'm just going to say 'get back to work, you lazy virgins'," White finished her sentence, ignoring Celio.

Once again, the doors on the back of the room were opened, and Kris stepped into the lab. She looked even more miserable than she had looked a day before, her greasy hair shining and her jumpsuit hanging as if she had lost weight again. White looked behind her and snorted again.

"And speaking of losers…" she muttered to Ein and Celio. "Hey, Zimmerman! In case you didn't notice, we're working here!"

"Yeah!" Celio said and turned back to his computer. "Hey, look, I'm the millionth visitor on this website and I win a prize!"

"Sorry…" Kris muttered.

Kris hung her head and hoped that at least someone would take note of her condition. However, in her frustration, she refused to leave the lab and decided to move closer to White, Ein and Celio. Maybe someone would ask her about her day and she would steer the conversation into the tracks of self-pity to get some comfort. But how likely was that in this company?

Kris walked to the computers and looked at Ein's terminal, causing the doctor to let out an annoyed sigh.

"Do you need something?" Ein snapped at Kris. "I need to work here!"

"Uh, yeah, obviously you do," Kris said, "so I'll just get my questions out of the way. Any news about Lyra?"

"Nothing," Ein said. "All we know for certain is that she's still alive, most likely."

"What a shame. How can you keep track of her?"

White pulled Kris away from Ein and started reprimanding her.

"That's really none of your business, Kris!" White said firmly. "Don't you have places to be in, people to talk to, stuff to do? Go talk to your friend Shane or whatever!"

"He's on a mission," Kris said bitterly. "Though if I would have to guess, he's most likely lost in some supermarket while buying supplies…"

"So why aren't you working on anything?" White asked.

"Because you put me in quarantine, Touko!" Kris yelled. "For supposedly 'screwing up' that last mission! Don't you remember? _And what the hell are you staring at_?"

Ein and Celio had turned around in their chairs when Kris started yelling at White and even started using her first name, but soon turned back when Kris yelled at them, too. Kris' eyes started bulging and she spat all over White while yelling. White's patience was nearing its limits as well, as she was biting her lip, but instead she just laughed tensely.

"Oh, did I really?" she said. "I must have been drunk then… well, this just shows how alcohol helps you make good decisions. Remember that, kids!"

"Who are you talking to?"

"No one in particular," White said and grabbed Kris' arm, squeezing it tightly. "Now listen!"

White moved Kris closer to her and started muttering with a low, threatening voice to make sure Ein and Celio wouldn't hear. Kris remembered how freakishly strong White was when her arm started hurting like hell in White's grip.

"I've just about had it with your moping, Kris," White said slowly, stretching every word while Kris shuddered in fear. "I can continue this quarantine as _loooong_ as I want. I can think of hundreds of demeaning jobs for you. I can make sure that everyone hears of your insolence and you will have _no one_ here to talk to after I've done. So what do you say if you and I start getting along, or I'll make sure your life will be a living hell from this moment on."

Kris knew what Touko was capable of, and whenever the troops talked about her, the word 'crazy' was thrown around a lot. And yet, Kris couldn't help herself. She wasn't afraid of White.

"Well, you're a bit too late," Kris muttered to her while looking her in the eyes. "Whatever you have in store, that's probably much more pleasant than '_getting along_' with you, if you catch my-"

But White interrupted Kris by punching her in the gut. When White let go of Kris, she fell on her knees, held her stomach and moaned. White seemed to regret losing her temper, as her voice trembled a bit when she spoke to Kris next:

"Not a word to anyone, you hear?" she said. "Get out of here."

Without saying a word, Kris slowly got back on her feet, and while still holding her stomach, she limped away. White turned back to Celio and Ein. The former quickly turned to face his computer again and pretended that he hadn't seen anything, but Ein watched as Kris walked away with interest.

"You know, she didn't look too good during her last check-up," Ein said. "You really shouldn't be punching her in the stomach, Lieutenant. Or anyone for that matter, since that can cause ruptures, and-"

"I have one in store for you too," White said and started cracking her knuckles.

"Uhh… did I mention how lovely you look today, Lieutenant?"

"You don't need to, I know that already."

When the doors of the lab were opened yet again, White raised her fist in case it was Kris again, but quickly lowered it. Two scientists entered the lab, talking with each other and ignoring White and the technicians. The other one was Leaf, and unlike usually, she was smiling and laughing when talking to a tall, slick, brown-haired fellow scientist, Dr. Nilsson, another member of the science team that Dr. Araragi led.

"Hello, Lieutenant White," Leaf said tensely in a faux-polite tone.

"Dr. Greene, Dr. Nilsson," White said and nodded to the scientists - she didn't particularly care about them either.

"What a charming afternoon this is, don't you think, Lieutenant?" Nilsson said disgustingly and bowed to White.

"Go grow a pair, egghead" White told Nilsson and crossed her arms. "There's nothing charming about this, or you, for that matter."

"Well, a man's gotta try," Nilsson said and still kept smiling smugly.

"Was Kris just here a moment ago?" Leaf asked, sounding a bit worried. "She limped past us on the hall but she didn't say anything or even look at us?"

"No, we haven't seen her all day," White lied.

"I wonder if she was having pains or something…" Leaf muttered.

"Oh, chicks always complain about their stomachs," Celio said. "Am I right, guys?"

White slapped Celio on the back of his head.

"I don't hear typing!" she said. "Get back to work and keep your wisdoms to yourself!"

Leaf and Nilsson stared at White, who just laughed.

"Well, you gotta beat up your underlings every now and then," she said. "How else would they learn? It's what I told those newbie Pokémon Trainers, too: treat your underlings like you treat your Pokémon. A punch per day keeps the bolshevism away."

"I'm sure it does," Leaf said and wished to get away from White as soon as possible. "Uh, anyway, we're going to see Heatran. Doctor Araragi's been monitoring it for over 27 hours straight."

"Hey, go on ahead, I don't care," White said.

"Ah, Heatran," Nilsson sighed theatrically. "The beast that mankind is attempting to tame, to engineer it against the threat that looms above us. I may not approve of the way it is held in our captivity, but it's all for the greater good, after all. Let's go, Leaf. Good meeting you, Lieutenant White and gentlemen!"

Nilsson and a rather disgruntled-looking Leaf left towards the laboratory below them. As soon as they were out of earshot, Celio groaned.

"I hate that guy with every fiber of my being," Celio said.

"Could there be something going on between those two?" Ein wondered.

"Could there be any reason for me to care?" White asked scathingly. "Now get back to work already!"

**

* * *

**

When Leaf and Nilsson appeared into the laboratory underneath, the first thing they saw was Dr. Araragi sitting behind a desk, constantly almost falling to sleep. The cup of coffee in her hand was tilted quite dangerously. Leaf coughed softly, causing Araragi to jump up and look wildly around her.

"Oh, hello, there!" she exclaimed and checked her watch. "Oh, you're going to cover for me from now on?"

"Yeah," Leaf said, "you go home and get some sleep, doctor, you look-"

Araragi raised an eyebrow.

"Yes?"

"Uh…"

"Well, _I_ personally think you look lovely this afternoon, doctor," Nilsson said slimily. "My, are those new earrings?"

"Yes, they are, in fact!" Araragi said and fondled her Staryu-shaped earrings. "Solid gold, actually! I'm glad _someone_ noticed!"

"Are you sure they're solid gold, doctor?" Leaf said and squinted, trying to see the earrings better. "Doesn't look like it…"

"Well, what do you know about anything, Leaf?" Araragi said and laughed, then yawned and grabbed her jacket from the chair. "Just make sure that the life support systems don't crash and whatnot. See ya!"

While Dr. Araragi left the room, Leaf and Nilsson made their way to a panoramic window on the other side of the room. From there, they had a full view of the underground complex where several maintenance and security personnel walked around and yelled stuff at each other.

And in the very middle of the room, there was Heatran. The enormous, tortoise-like Pokémon was conscious and still breathing, as smoke kept pouring out from its mouth. But instead of standing upright, it lay on its belly and its four legs were all pointing in different directions, being locked in place with heavy steel chains. Ropes, chains and tubes were connected all over Heatran, one particular tube constantly feeding it tranquilizers to keep it under control. Every hour, someone had to make sure that there was still enough tranquilizers, as no one wanted to think about what would happen should Heatran suddenly recover.

Small pieces of Heatran had been excavated, and Dr. Araragi had been analyzing them day and night, trying to figure out what really made the legendary Pokémon so… legendary. Should ancient myths and legends be believed, legendary Pokémon had nearly godlike powers. Who _wouldn't_ want to know how to utilize them? So far, they had little success with Heatran, but it was still a huge accomplishment. For the first time in the history of mankind, a legendary Pokémon had been properly captured and kept under control. Poké Balls weren't used, as they limited the Pokémon's power too much.

Leaf sat on the chair where Dr. Araragi had been sitting a moment ago and immediately resumed working from where she had left off. Nilsson, on the other hand, kept staring at the Heatran.

"Gorgeous beast, isn't it?" he said to Leaf, who wasn't listening.

Nilsson looked around the complex where Heatran was held. All over the place were cages of different sizes, where Pokémon were being held. Most of them looked apathetic, some remaining in the darkness and refusing to look in the humans' direction. In another end of the complex, there was a huge, isolated area where a bunch of Koffing floated around aimlessly, puffing smoke at each other. And in another place, there was a row of Voltorb and Electrode, apparently supplying power to the base. A scientist walked around with a notepad, observing the Voltorb and writing notes.

Nilsson then turned around when he heard tiny footsteps: the Cubone that had been a test subject in a certain experiment walked past him and went to Leaf, who stopped working for a moment and picked the Cubone up.

"Wow," she exclaimed. "Just a few days ago, this Cubone didn't have the courage to do _anything_… I think it's beginning to trust humans more."

It was hard to interpret what the Cubone was thinking, as the skull it wore as a helmet covered most of its face, but Leaf was certain that the Pokémon was more happy than usual. As Nilsson watched Leaf hold the Cubone in her arms, she remembered just how much Leaf liked Pokémon… he knew just which strings to pull.

"Just look at all those Pokémon in those cages, Leaf," Nilsson said pretentiously as he looked out of the window. "Is our job really worth all this? Keeping those _poor_, defenseless Pokémon locked in cages like this?"

Nilsson glanced at Leaf in hopes of getting a reaction, but Leaf just placed the Cubone on her desk. The Cubone was a bit disheartened that its bone club had been taken away, but Leaf had given it a wooden stick to play with. Nilsson tried a different approach next:

"Say, Leaf?" he said.

"Yes?"

"Last night, that shady guy Silver tried to break into your office again."

Leaf sighed.

"I know, okay?" she said. "I hoped you told him what's what."

"Uh… well, yes, I tried my best…"

Nilsson was too embarrassed to admit that he had just pretended not seeing Silver - the guy scared him too much.

"But why is he so interested in you?" Nilsson asked. "Is there something between you guys, perhaps?"

"It's a really long, complex and boring story," Leaf said exhaustedly.

"Kinda like this fanfic I once read," Nilsson said. "It was so full of this pretentious drama and unfunny humor bits and the plot was so badly written that it made me puke my tonsils out. I think the author was called Z- oh, sorry! I started rambling again."

"Anyway," Leaf said, "let's just say that yes, there was something between us once. Unfortunately for me, he still thinks there is."

"Do you need help keeping him out, maybe?" Nilsson asked, deciding to throw subtlety out of the window.

"I'm used to guys like that," Leaf sighed. "When I was still studying, back in Pewter, there was this guy called Timmy… he claims he didn't know how my Snubbul ended up dying of a salt overdose or how a certain video ended on a certain forum, but I think that was a pretty sure sign to end the relationship. He hounded me endlessly for months on end, I had to change my address!"

Nilsson made a pretentious, 'I-know-how-you-feel'-kinda face and nodded, then sat next to Leaf, who didn't seem to notice Nilsson's attempts. She just gazed at the computer, but in reality, she started reminiscing on something completely different. Something that had happened about two years ago…

_

* * *

_

_Leaf's Flashback_

**Pewter Museum of Science, Pewter City**. _April 10__th__, 2095. 9:30  
_**Leaf's Journal**

This particular morning probably changed my life for good. Just like on a morning any other, I was working at the Pewter Museum of Science as an intern. While polishing a piece of amber for my pretentious supervisor who claimed that there could have been fossilized Pokémon DNA inside it (yeah, right!) my best friend Julia, a bespectacled and red-headed 26-year old researcher working at the space exploration department, stormed into the museum. She was quite late from work and her lab coat looked even dirtier than usual. She was badly out of breath, visibly enthusiastic about something.

And she had good reason to! She brought none other than Professor Oak with her. I remember when I was a little girl, I used to cut his pictures from the newspapers. He was my idol! After talking with him for about fifteen minutes, I have considered changing my idol. Not only did he seem to have way more gray hair and wrinkles when I saw him close, but he was so full of himself and his research! I swear, I heard the phrase '_I invented the PokéDex_' about a gazillion times during that talk.

But never mind that, because what he said was way more interesting. It was hard for me not to squeal from delight when he told that he needed talented young researchers to form a think-tank and go do some research in Orre, because the regional professor left somewhere or something. Anyway, the research is about the effects of radioactive fallout on Pokémon, which is much more interesting than it seems. Though I always pay attention during lectures, I found it quite hard to keep up with Oak's babble about the subject, but that's neither here or there. He promised that me and Julia could coordinate the think-tank. Finally, at the age of 19, I get some recognition! Who knows… if this goes well, they might make me _Professor _Greene of Orre. How cool would that be?

_16:00_

I leave work and head to my car. I've still got a load of payments to make on it, so thank the Original One that I've got this intern job. The money isn't good, but I think the money will start flowing in as soon as I get that job from Orre. The day seemed to just fly by and before I knew it, it was time to go home! I spent all day thinking about how they would make me regional professor and how they would possibly write a book about my advancements on the field of Pokémonology. _Everyone_ would be totally jealous and those old school professors would have to admit why my methods rule. Oak, Araragi and even Kaminko would totally acknowledge my superiority. I gotta start working on some new research methods. What the hell is this racket I hear on the streets, though? It's so distracting.

When I sat on the driver's seat, I nearly had a heart attack when I looked at the mirror. A creepy-looking guy lay on the backseat. I remember his piercing eyes and long, red hair quite well, oddly enough. We didn't have much time to exchange pleasantries when I realized that the racket on the streets was coming from an angry mob, complete with torches and pitchforks, who was approaching my car. My Honda!

"Go, go, go!" the red-headed guy told me. "You're in this now, too! I'll explain later!"

After recovering from the shock, I hit the pedal to the metal and drove away. I manage to shake off those angry citizens and pulled over behind some dark alley. Funny how there are places in Pewter City I have never been to!

The guy told me that his name was Silver. He apologized for breaking into my car and keeping his shoes on the seats, and I restrained myself from throwing him out of the car long enough to listen to his story. He had stolen a Boulderbadge from this kid who just managed to beat Brock. Too bad this 'kid' also happened to be the son of this famous banker who lived in the area. Why the hell would someone bother to steal a badge, though? They're just flashy pieces of copper!

When I asked this from Silver, he replied to me that they would only allow certified Pokémon Trainers to ride ferries, and he needed to do so in order to find his estranged father. Apparently, his mother had killed herself years ago and his father had left them many years before that. Silver could apparently barely remember what he looked like. He had only stolen the badge because he couldn't challenge a gym leader himself - no one allowed him to have a Pokémon. Suddenly, I felt like the worst human being in the world, sitting in my fancy car and keeping the engine running for some reason.

Me and Silver just sat in the car and talked for hours. It was refreshing to talk to someone who isn't Julia or one of those egomaniacs at the museum. I told him all about my work, my research and my ambitions, and he was impressed by all the big words I knew. In turn, I had to go and buy a box of tissues when he told me about his home life and how he had to rob Poké Marts after his father's departure to supply food for him and his mom. Because I cried, I mean, get your mind out of the gutter!

However, I did give him a long and well-crafted speech about how it was wrong to steal. He told me that he lived in Johto, so I told him that Professor Elm was searching for employees, and I promised to recommend him to the good professor. I don't know him personally but I can get his email address from Oak. He seemed to be really happy about my promise. Well, his face twitched a bit and I interpreted it as a smile. I don't really like the way he constantly looks like he's scowling, but I gotta admit that he looked pretty good during that possible smile…

Everything seems to be going swell. I can't wait to hear about Oak again. He said he's going to get us plane tickets to Orre any day now.

_April 18__th__, 2095_

I called Oak last night and he told us that we would fly to Orre next month. I'm so excited that I could just explode! After that, we're going to start looking for potential candidates to join the think-tank.

For some reason, Julia isn't so enthusiastic. She's getting paler and she didn't eat anything at lunch today. I quoted this interesting book about eating disorders to her, but she said that it's just the stress. Well, I told her not to hang out with all those anarchists, though I don't think she listened to me. She constantly keeps talking about how Red disappeared, as if he was her hero or something. I don't quite honestly care myself. People disappear all the time!

_April 28__h__, 2095_.

Dear diary, I have officially stopped caring. When I turned on the radio this afternoon to listen to the news, I nearly fainted at that very second. I didn't say a word to my supervisor or anyone else. As soon as I heard about what happened at Route 224, I grabbed my jacket and drove home. I'm still trying to process what happened.

Julia is _dead_. Murdered. Allegedly by a Suicune.

I should have seen it coming - she was up to no good! She mysteriously skipped work completely about five days ago, and a bit after that, she told me that she and her a couple of her anarchist-buddies were going to Sinnoh. I figured that they were just having one of their pointless little protests, but… I should have warned her! And now… it's too late.

I…

I can't write right now… I need time…

_May 3__rd__, 2095_

One of the bodies has indeed been identified. It's Julia. I'm not sure whether I feel better or worse hearing that. I admit that there was small glimmer of hope there for a moment - maybe all those three were friends of Julia's and she had gotten away. But no. I can't… I can't believe this.

But just this morning, it got worse.

Professor Oak called. There was literally no offers for sympathy, no comforting, nothing. He coldly announced that he would find another team to form the think-tank "now that Julia was dead". Then he hung up. I hope he gets prostate cancer.

_May 5__th__, 2095_

Dead diary, I think I'm saved! I'll tell you what happened:

Today is Friday. My internship at the Museum ended. No kind words were offered or anything, it was just like any other day. I know that I haven't been doing a very good job lately, but… well.

But then, once again, as I prepared to drive home, there was a familiar redhead on the backseat of my car. Someone who I have been thinking about for the past few weeks more than anything, more than the late Julia, even!

Though I had been told about creepy guys wandering the streets of Pewter at nights, I just had to invite Silver to my one-bedroom-apartment. Once again, we talked and talked. I didn't cry at all - he'll think I'm some sort of nervous wreck. Of course I had to hide the liquor bottles as well. One of them had been carelessly thrown under my bed and it could be seen pretty clearly, but somehow Silver didn't see it. Or he pretended not to see it. Either way, it was so good to finally tell how I felt to someone. No tears were shad, but I swear that it was like the Niagara Falls in here after Silver left.

But he had good news for me! And I though that job in Orre would have been sweet. I sure lacked perspective then. Thanks to me recommending Silver to professor Elm a few weeks back, Elm recruited him into an organization run by none other than professor Kaminko! The founder of Pokémonology! The father of modern science! I'm not quite sure what kind of work could Silver do to them - neither was he - but I don't really care. He said that the organization (it was called SledgeHammer or something, I think) was looking for new scientists to work under a science team led by none other than my university professor, Dr. Araragi. Silver put in the good word for Elm, who in turn told about me to Araragi. And since Araragi knows me… well, according to Silver, a formal invitation letter is on the way.

To anyone reading this journal: you're reading the thoughts of a would-be doctor of Pokémonology! Dr. Greene… kinda has a nice ring to it, don'tcha think?

According to Silver, the work that SledgeHammer does will be important for the future of mankind, for the future of the entire world, in fact! And to think I was supposed to go get radiation poisoning to some lousy desert! You can keep your job, Oak!

And just when I though nothing could make me happier, a familiar brick flew in through the window. Timmy was at it again, and I'm sure he had thought of a yet another reason why I should get back together with him. Only this time, I had company. Wrong move, Timmy.

I couldn't help but to squeal in delight again when I saw Silver kicking Timmy's bony ass out of my house. I'm not quite sure what he said or what he did, exactly, but that Silver looked damned impressive when he shouted at Timmy. That ridiculous bird keeper didn't stand a chance! Silver had a Pokémon with him, too: this cool Sneasel! It tore up Timmy's clothes nicely. When I saw Silver humiliating Timmy at a public street like that, I realized something:

I think I'm in love with him.

Of course I didn't tell this to Silver. I didn't want to freak him out. Not just yet. But I think… I _know_ he feels the same. He was _definitely_ smiling this time when I dropped him off at the bus station. And to think I wasn't even wearing makeup today! Ugh, what was I thinking? The next time Silver walks in through my door, I'll make sure he won't leave in a while…

_End of Flashback_.

* * *

Back in her home and back in present day, Leaf kept reading at her old diary entries. She hadn't written anything since starting her work at SledgeHammer and breaking up with Silver. She couldn't help but to smile a bit when she read the last entry. Things seemed so happy back then… sure, she got the job, she got rid of Timmy and she was in love. ´

But something obviously came in between Leaf and Silver. She had written many entries about that brief romance, but she didn't want to read any further. She just couldn't deal with living through it again.

But there was also a picture inside the journal. This was something that Leaf had long since forgotten: It was taken in the summer of 2095. Leaf and Silver were relaxing at the Pokéthlon Dome, watching a race and eating ice cream. Silver's Sneasel was sitting on Leaf's shoulders. Leaf smiled at this memory again. What a corny old scene…

_Stupid Silver_, she thought before going to bed.


	5. Perfect Day

_**PERFECT DAY**_

**SledgeHammer HQ, Shane's Room  
**_February 17th, 2097_

"…they should really improve the layout of those department stores! Anyone could get lost out there! There's no reason to laugh at me."

Shane was standing still, wearing a new, fancy suit that he had bought. With Cheren Black's money, of course. He was about to have his third date with the handsome billionaire, and he was certain that tonight, Cheren would let Shane into his… wallet. Kris was currently adjusting Shane's necktie, as Shane had no idea how to wear one. Originally, he thought that it was a bandanna.

"I wasn't laughing, Shane," Kris remarked.

"Well, you were about to," Shane said. "I'm good at those things. I think I'm half psychic. I should know, my cousin was a psychic. He was always so certain that the sun would rise in the morning, so obviously I challenged him to a bet. I lost like five thousand bucks! Never make bets with psychics, Kris!"

"I'll keep that in mind… hold still! I've never heard of this cousin, though. What became of him?"

"Well, being a psychic is hard work," Shane said, "and you're bound to hear voices in your head when you're like that. Sadly, those voices told him to stalk twelve-year olds and tell each of them that they were the 'chosen one'. Let's just that it didn't end well. Now let us never speak of that again."

"Let us not," Kris said grumpily and started combing Shane's hair. "You know, if I had psychic powers, I'd blow up the brains of all the idiots I meet. Which is to say, everyone."

"Easy there, Friedrich," Shane said. "Ow! Don't mess up the hair!"

"It's always messed up, Shane. Now be a man while I put some hairspray on it."

It took a few hours, but eventually Shane looked ready to go on his date. Kris, obviously enough, was not happy. Now that Lyra was still in Sinnoh, she would be in the base all by herself. Not that there was anything new in that, but still… even the obnoxious anecdotes of Shane were enough to keep Kris sane.

"So how did your last mission go?" Kris asked while scrubbing dust off Shane's supposedly 'new' jacket. "You know, besides the whole 'getting-lost-in-a-supermarket'-thingy. What were you supposed to do?"

"There's this criminal gang that's causing trouble," Shane replied. "Small time. Run by some guy - or girl," he added to be fair, "calling him- or herself Tac Psit or something."

"That's probably the lamest name for a crime boss ever," Kris said.

"But it didn't go very well," Shane admitted. "I received a call from Cheren Black in the middle of everything. Just his voice was enough to melt my butter… kinda distracted me from the mission…"

Shane sighed and suddenly started daydreaming about Cheren Black again. Kris had to give him a "gentle" slap in the face, leaving a red mark on his cheek.

"Ow!" he exclaimed. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Sorry," Kris said, though not sounding very apologetic and shrugging while saying so. "But you need to snap out of it if you want tonight to go well."

"Too true, "Shane admitted as started polishing his shoes. "I mean, I like him, and somehow, I get the feeling he likes me to. Only two dates so far, and he was a bit detached on the second one… I really felt a gap between us."

"Well, he _was_ on the other side of the world," Kris said. "Webcam dates don't usually end up well. My mother tried one, and-"

"Yeah, yeah, Kris, I would love to listen about your problems with your ever-so-eccentric family, but the spotlight is on me here. _Me_. Everybody loves _me_!"

"There are varying opinions about that," Kris said snarkily and spat on Shane's shoes without him noticing, leaving a big, nasty blob of slime on them. "Okay, I'm done here!"

"Thanks," Shane said. "Anyway, if I want this relationship to go anywhere, I need him to like me _more_. How else would I get access to his credit card? I guess I just need to be myself."

Shane's and Kris' eyes met, and Shane instantly realized that this was not one of his best ideas. He groaned.

"Well, crap, Kris! Help me out here!"

"I'd love to," Kris said, "but actually, I wouldn't. And I won't. Sucks to be you!"

Shane groaned even louder and started to move uncomfortably and move his legs around. Not only was the suit uncomfortable, he had to calm his nerves with a gallon of Mountain Dew. Then he had Kris to scrub all the yellow out of his tongue, but for some reason, she refused to check if the rumors about Mountain Dew decreasing one's testicle size were true.

"Oh crappage!" Shane whined. "I need to use the bathroom. Hey, come help me with the zipper, willya?"

"No!" Kris insisted. "Never again! Three times is where I draw the line!"

"You know," Shane said and suddenly forgot about his need to use the toilet, "I wish I'd had some horrible injury."

"Uh…"

"Yeah, because I could go to the hospital wing and I wouldn't have to get up to do anything… even to use the facilities! Plus, they have Kinect there."

"I always thought it was a bit cruel to put Kinect and Wii Fit on the section with all those wheelchair-bound kids… heh…"

Then Kris and Shane proceeded to laugh at this, Shane almost ruining his new pants due to his uncontrollable laughter. Even Kris got tears in her eyes when just thinking about it.

"Ah, we're horrible…" Kris said while wiping her eyes.

"Yeah, you really are," Shane said and checked the time from his Pokétch. After he finally found the clock app, he let out a dramatic gasp. "Oh no!" he exclaimed. "Black's limo will be in here in ten minutes! Listen, Kris, stop moping for a second! You'll have plenty of company!"

"From who?" Kris wondered. "Blaine and Elm won't talk to me, Touya creeps me out and even Silver has gone somewhere."

"Oh, where?" Shane wondered.

"Dunno exactly, but White sent him on some mission. He needs to go meet some guy to buy… uh, the plates of origin. Whatever they are. Some ancient artifacts that the boss wants, methinks."

"Oh, yeah, _that_ one!" Shane said. "I know where he went, Silver went to this transaction with the current owner of the plates. Mewonders…"

But Shane was interrupted when the door of his room suddenly slid open. Professor Elm, looking as sweaty and nervous as ever, burst into the room. His glasses were once again inches away from falling away.

"Kris!" he shouted, sounding more tense and annoyed than usual. "I've been looking all over for you! Stop lounging around, we have a mission for you! Get to the debriefing room where Blaine will explain everything!"

"Coming…"

Elm left the room running, while Kris got up more slowly and rather reluctantly. She was kinda hoping to spend the night trying to connect to her Totodile better, perhaps even to make it stop biting other people's legs, not to mention attempting to produce offspring with them. When Kris started walking towards the door, Shane took notice that she was limping, holding her stomach and walking stooped.

"Something wrong there?"

"No big deal," Kris grunted. "Bye…"

When Kris was gone, Shane made some last-minute adjustments to his suit and shook his head.

"Poor girl," he muttered to himself. "She should really take better care of her health, like me."

Then he proceeded to open another bottle of Mountain Dew for the road.

* * *

On his date with Cheren Black, Shane was wearing a suit due to the location: it was luxurious ship. Specifically, the S.S. Megalomania, the place where the waiters were 'rude, loud-mouthed sailors', the food was 'ridiculously overpriced' the portions were 'small but pretentiously crafted' and the dining hall was filled with pompous decorations, such as a chandelier and a water-fountain with a solid-gold statue of a water-spouting Wailmer in it. Despite being a ship, it had only left port once, and it ended up in every customer getting seasick and promptly ejecting the food they had eaten.

Shane and Cheren sat on a table with the best view and the shortest distance to the salad bar. Normally, Extranormal Operatives weren't allowed to leave the base for reasons other than missions, but Shane was a special case, and Black worked closely with the organization and was one of the few that knew of its existence. The 29-year Cheren Black was the vice president of Galaxy Inc, a company that supplied devices to ENO and the SledgeHammer Intelligence Team. Cheren was tall, dark-haired, bespectacled and in the eyes of Shane, at least, incredibly handsome with his rugged features and deliberately unshaven face, plus he was just generally laid-back and confident. The fact that Shane was even having a third date with him made Shane believe that the Original One existed after all.

But even Black had once looked very different. While waiting for their food, Black showed Shane a picture of him when he was 14. Shane snorted the wine out of his nose upon seeing a picture of a young Black - skinny, nerdy and a rather feminine-looking.

"Is that really you?" Shane asked Black and held up the picture while Black wiped wine off his glasses. "I thought that this was your sister at first!"

"Yeah, well, it was hard to get far with those kind of looks," Black said. "Going to the gym and taking all those self-help courses really made my career skyrocket."

"Looking good, bisshie boy!" Shane said and laughed some more.

"Yeah, okay, that's enough already!"

Black snatched the picture from Shane, who was cheerfully oblivious to Black's growing annoyance. Fortunately, Cheren was saved from having to come up with a conversation topic when the owner of the restaurant, Elite Four member Drake, a tough old sea captain who constantly wore a captain's hat and jacket - but no shirt underneath it.

"Welcome, Mr. Black!" Drake announced loudly with his deep, strong voice. "It is an honor to see you here in my humble restaurant! I hope you're enjoying yourself. And this must be, eh…"

Drake started staring at Shane, who had his mouth full of bread and couldn't answer the question.

"Just a colleague," Black said. "And thank you, Drake. It's a nice place."

Suddenly, Drake started grinning like a madman.

"NICE?" he shouted and almost went mad with glee. "_Did everyone in this restaurant hear that_? Cheren Black said my restaurant was nice! I can die happy! WHEE!"

Once the chef and two waiters had dragged Drake away, Black could continue talking with Shane.

"Sorry about that," he said, "but the public still sees me as somewhat of a ladykiller, so… I don't really care, but it's important to the company."

"You'd think society would have gotten over issues like these in the future… I mean, present," Shane said.

Black shrugged.

"Yes, well, at this point, what the public thinks or doesn't think doesn't really matter…" he confessed.

Unexpectedly, Black grabbed Shane's hand just as the latter was reaching for his glass. Shane and Black's eyes met over the glass of expensive, fortified, foreign wine. Suddenly Shane started feeling like it was very hot in the restaurant. Why hadn't he used any deodorant? Just the way Black's blue eyes gazed into his made Shane feel like… like…

"Uh, Shane?" Black asked, sounding a bit worried. "Why are you drooling?"

"What? Oh, man…"

Shane let go of Black to wipe the drool off his face while Black pretended to take a sip of wine. Black tried to hide a smile in the process, though. He believed that he had softened Shane up enough.

"So, Shane," Black said warily, "any interesting operations going on at ENO?"

Shane started yanking on his tie and wished that he hadn't allowed Kris to put it on so tightly. He knew that security chief Blaine would most likely chew him out for talking, but he had to talk about _something_ to keep Black's interest in him up. The mission that he had overheard about was the only thing he remembered at the moment…

"Yes, there is, actually," Shane said. "I probably bored you to death with the extensive details of the Heatran mission that I described to you in the car, _but_ this is way more interesting… I think. Hell if I know what it was about."

"Yes, go on…"

"Do you know what the '_plates of origin_' are?" Shane asked.

Cheren raised his eyebrows a bit and his hands seemed to twitch involuntarily.

"I think I've heard the name in school, during history classes," Black said and squinted. "Um… what about 'em?"

"Well, Silver, or agent seven as they call him, is representing us in this transaction," Shane explained. "It takes place tomorrow night in, um… oh, Viridian City! Basically, Kaminko wants to buy the plates from their current owner, who's this dude whose name I can't remember. Or pronounce, for that matter."

"Interesting…" Black muttered. "Uh, should we get more wine?"

"It was about time you suggested that! And where the hell is our food?"

"Well, if I had to guess, then either it's in the process of being made," Black suggested, "or the waiters are just deliberately being slow as to sell the image that the food is made from scratch. Somehow I think that my Corphish is just taken from the freezer, though…"

"The Tentacool soup that I ordered sounds yummy, though," Shane said. "Ooh, can you buy me dessert? Oh man, there's this awesome new ice cream flavor out, you have _got_ to try it out, and while you're at it, can you also consider ordering…"

While listening to Shane's rambling, Black smiled. Maybe he didn't need any wine after all... after a moment of listening to Shane, Black checked the time from his Rolex.

"It's 7 PM now," he said. "And Shane, I hope you can forgive me for being out of town during our last little get-together. I really, _really _want to get to know you…"

Shane gulped.

"Uh, sure, yeah, no problem, yeah," he flustered nervously and felt like he was bathing in sweat. "I mean, sure, I forgive you… hell, you're… you're _you_! You wouldn't need to apologize! You're rich and powerful, which means you're superior to me in every imaginable way. You could buy me if you wanted!"

Black just waved his hand and leaned back on his chair casually.

"Please, Shane," he said. "And just relax. Being a millionaire isn't all fun and games, Shane."

"Really?" Shane asked.

"Okay, I lied, it actually is fun and games, but still… money can't get you everything. Just a few years ago, when I was just one of the many faceless drones working at Galaxy, I thought that when I would hit rich, I would be a God or something. I would be lying if I said that being rich and famous wouldn't make me happy, but… lately, I've come to see that there are other things in life."

Shane was listening so intently that a piece of bread was from hanging from his mouth, but he didn't seem to notice. Black just laughed and reached towards Shane to wipe it off with his napkin. Shane swallowed the bread so he could give his two cents about the subject.

"Yeah, I guess you have _one_ kind of a point there, sort of, maybe, kinda," Shane said, "so are we going to spend the rest of the evening on a shoestring budget?"

"Not at all!" Cheren exclaimed and reached for his wallet. "I'm paying for tonight's events, and… say, you didn't happen to hear the address of that transaction in Viridian?"

"Yeah, I do remember hearing it, but it sort of slipped out of my head a few minutes after when I saw this shiny thing on the ground…"

"Well, I'm sure you'll remember it eventually… not that it's that important, even! Anyway," Black took a piece of paper from his pocket and showed it to Shane. "_This_ is a list of things I have suggested that we could do this evening. I'm paying for _everything_!"

As Shane took the list, his eyes widened and he started trembling.

"But feel free to suggest _anything_ you want," Black said. "I was kinda a jerk for leaving on a business trip last time, and this is my way of making it up! I want this day to be your perfect day! What are you into?"

"Legendary Pokémon!" Shane exclaimed and banged the desk. "The way they look, the way they fly, the way they blow up things… my dream is to see the rainbow-colored bird some day… I distinctly remember seeing it once somehow, but you know, up close."

Black rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Well, I can't guarantee you any legendary Pokémon, but-"

"_OR_!" Shane shouted. "We could go rocketskiing!"

"I think I can arrange that," Black said, tilted his head and smiled devilishly. Shane, on the other hand, didn't seem to notice anything, as he was too busy thinking of other cool activities he had always wanted to do.

Black's wallet was going to empty after tonight…

* * *

**Goldenrod City, Cheren Black's office**

_February 18__th__, 9:45 AM_

Black was currently sitting behind his desk with a calculator, making an estimate on how much last night's date with Shane cost him. Though that diving trip in Hoenn and renting the Oceanic Museum were quite expensive, he nevertheless managed to cut corners enough. He was more worried about the next date - he wished that he wouldn't have promised Shane that they would ride in a real TIE Fighter.

Nonetheless, when looking at the big picture… it was very much worth it. Now, he knew how to get his hands on the plates. He just needed a suitable courier for them… and that someone was just about to step into Black's office.

As if on cue, Black's door was slammed open, and Pluto Lorenz stepped in. Black always took certain precautions with this girl - though this dark-haired chick was short, pale and thin, she also spent her days jumping on rooftops and delivering messages that the authorities didn't want delivered. Black smiled at the energetic girl, and Pluto smiled back, although in a very sarcastic manner. Her Aipom was hanging on her shoulders, as always. Black and Pluto shook hands curtly, then Black went to the window and closed the curtains just in case before circling back behind his desk.

Before Black managed to ask her to sit, Pluto instantly grabbed a chair and sat down rather casually, yawned and started scratching herself.

"Whatup, Cherry?" she asked. "Sorry I'm late, but I just couldn't be bothered to wake up early for you."

"Taking a day off, are we?" Black asked.

"Runners never sleep," Pluto said. "…but… yaaawwwn….that's just what we tell everyone… Red Bulls are the only thing still keeping me awake… remember, kids! Buy Red Bull! It's good for you!"

Black looked around him as if expecting to see if there were cameras pointing at Pluto, then shrugged.

"Okay," he said. "Listen, my abilities are limited… whereas you can get basically anywhere you want."

"Oh, you're too kind!" Pluto said. "But yeah, I can."

"Well, that's good," Black said suavely. "And someone with your abilities can… what _are_ you doing?"

Pluto didn't seem to like sitting in a conventional manner, as she assumed some kind of lotus position on the chair and started to meditate, with her eyes constantly closed.

"Keep talking, Blackie," Pluto muttered. "I just remembered that I forgot to do my meditations this morning. Ommmmm…."

Black leaned closer to Pluto to make sure she heard over her meditation noise, and also didn't want anyone else to hear.

"I heard through a grapevine that something very big is going on at Viridian City tonight," Black whispered. "Remember how we talked about the plates of origin? Giovanni is selling them to SledgeHammer."

"Annnnnd whyyyyyyy should I caaaaaareeeeeee…" Pluto said as she sunk into some sort of trance, as if she was about to become one with the universe and discover the meaning of life or something.

"There's no one else who can steal them," Black said bluntly.

Pluto opened her eyes and stopped meditating, though still remained in a lotus position on the chair.

"You know I only steal from people I found absolutely morally reprehensible," she said.

"Indeed," Black replied. "Incidentally, have you seen my gold pen anywhere? Or my iPad? Or my," Black paused to check his wrist, "or my Rolex?"

"Nah, I haven't," Pluto said. "But as long as we're on the subject, check out my new cool Rolex!"

"Well, this is _Giovanni_ we're talking about, so…"

"You're a good customer, Cherry, so I'll nick the goods for ya, gov'na!" Pluto said cheerfully. "But you gotta tell me one thing. What's the deal with you and those plates? Is it some sort of fetish? 'Cuz I can totally understand if it is, but-"

"It's vital that those things don't end up in the hands of Kaminko," Black said. "Now, the Gods only know that I may not be the right person to hold them… but if Kaminko gets his wrinkly hands on them, then the bollocks will definitely hit the blades."

"I hear ya," Pluto said and raised her fist for Cheren to give a bump. "Fist me!"

Black raised his eyebrows.

"What?"

"Now, that probably came out wrong… what I meant to say was… oh, screw it, let's just shake on it!"

Black and Pluto shook hands.

"Come on, Aipom!"

Pluto's Aipom was currently in the process of hanging in Black's bookshelf, throwing various priceless history books around, turning the pages into dust as the books hit the floor. Black groaned loudly, while Aipom used the hand-shaped tip of its tail to swing itself on his lamp.

"Whoops, sorry," Pluto said and giggled. "Well, you won't miss those dusty old doorstoppers!"

"Yeah, I can always spare the extra million poké-dollars to buy new copies," Black said sadly, "if there are any left. Now, please, take your monkey and go."

"For the last time, it's not a monkey!" Pluto objected. "It's a-"

"Did you hear what I said?" Black said, more loudly and aggressively, but still refusing to shout or lose his temper.

Pluto was impressed, and recalled Aipom into its Poké Ball.

"They said you were confident, Cherry," Pluto said. "They weren't lying. What a shame it is that you're not single. Laterz!"

Black sighed, and was already a bit fatigued after that meeting. He circled back behind his desk again and opened one of the drawers, looking for a pen. He soon was surprised when he found a photograph that he didn't even remember having…

It was over ten years old, taken in Kanoko Town, Unova. Black saw himself surrounded by three of his friends - Touko, Touya and Bel. Well, calling them _friends_ was rather an exaggeration. Touya's mother was the principal of the local Trainer School, so obviously he needed to get in good terms with her, and thus, her son. Bel's father, strongly opposed of her daughter's dream of becoming a Trainer, incidentally, was the one who got Black his job from Galaxy Inc.

Touko White was a trickier case. Upon looking at the picture of the feisty brunette, Black realized that she had nothing to give her back then. But by dating her for that brief period in school, Black ensured that no one would actually know the truth about him. He was certain that White suspected something even then… in the picture, even though Black was resting his arm on White's shoulders, White was obviously attempting to make eye contact with Touya, who stood next to her.

Just looking at the picture made Black remember… the year was 2085...

"Bah! No time for flashbacks!" Black said. "I got work to do!"

* * *

**Castelia City, Unova**

Meanwhile, far away in the Unova region, in the capital city of the region, the Magnum Concilium were having a discussion inside one of their many office buildings. Ignoring the huge, elaborate room they used to greet visitors, the committee members had gathered around a dark, circular room, all sitting behind their individual desks. Though there were weak sources of light somewhere, the desk of the chairman was permanently in the dark.

Furthermore, the chairman was the only person actually present in the room. Everyone else was a holographic projection, transmitting their image from different parts of the Pokémon World - and beyond. Currently, their discussion was about the state of SledgeHammer and Exranormal Operations. While the other members discussed, the chairman merely observed quietly.

"_According to the recent additions to MegaNet's personnel files, Dr. Araragi has changed her name. She is now called Dr. Juniper. She has taken a divorce from her husband, apparently_.

"_As we suspected. We must heed Dr. Krane's warning and keep her under surveillance. There might be problems with her… _Juniper's _mental stability_."

"_What about Black_?_ We heard that he has recently come into contact with Agent Nine_. _Should we have any concerns_?"

"_No. What… and _who_ Black does on his free time is his business. As long as he does his job and keeps Saturn in check so he doesn't pester this Committee with demands to join it, all will be well_."

"_And Kaminko? Are we still considering making him a member of this committee? I strongly support this, seeing as Executive Hall has failed in his task. He is currently incarcerated. Kaminko is more reliable, and a trustworthy public figure. Then again, that is exactly why we should keep him as a figurehead..._"

"_He has been extremely helpful to our cause. He supplied us the Heatran core _and _the Magma Stone. Should he successfully obtain the plates of origin and solve the Canalave issue as swiftly and cleanly as possible, we will consider it. For now, we need to see how things develop_. _We still have almost three years left, so time is not an issue..._"

"_This meeting is adjourned_!"


	6. You're My Best Friend

_**YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND**_

**SledgeHammer HQ, Kaminko's office  
**_February 18__th__, 10:00 AM_.

Professor Kaminko had gathered a number of his employees around his desk. As usual, his assistant, Dr. Krane, was sitting next to him, much to Kaminko's chagrin, as Krane had a habit of emitting a variety of unusual odors. Sitting next to each other slightly further away from them were Professor Elm and Blaine.

"Dr. Juniper hasn't come to work today, I see," Kaminko said quietly upon gazing the empty seat on Krane's other side.

"Um, no, I gave her a day off, actually," Elm said, moving around in his chair nervously. "You gotta understand, sir, she would have come to work herself, but she looks like a mess after her divorce… and she has once again been monitoring Heatran day and night. She's not much use to us if she dies from lack of sleep."

"You're right, professor," Kaminko acknowledged without bothering to look at Elm, instead looking at the paintings on his wall. "She deserves at least a day of rest."

Krane scoffed and crossed his arms, expecting to get some recognition in his direction. Kaminko didn't notice this - a painting of a Giratina had caught his attention. The massive, six-legged, six-winged and six-clawed beast was surrounded by some sort of twisted, dark, realm and it bathed in dark, bluish flames.

"Um… sir?" Krane said.

"Yes, I am listening," Kaminko said and steepled his fingers, keeping his hands in front of his mouth, without taking his eyes off the painting.

"Cheren Black just called," Krane said, "his company has completed a first working prototype of a Pokémon-Human translator. It should arrive in a few hours, some couriers from Galaxy Inc are bringing it here."

"Any other _interesting_ things in the mail, Krane?" Blaine asked contemptuously and leaned back in his chair, grinning widely under his big, brown moustache. "Seeing as that is your major responsibility. I wonder where our organization would be without someone to sort the mail and answer the phone!"

"Actually, there _was_ something interesting in the mail," Krane snapped at Blaine. "Sir, we got a 'Get Well Soon'-card from someone, but before I could even see who it was addressed to, Blaine snatched it from my hands, threw it on the floor and blew it to pieces with his shotgun!"

"Hey!" Blaine objected. "There could have been a bomb!"

"Well," Elm said, "in that case, shooting at it probably wouldn't be a good-"

"Shut up, Elm!" Blaine shouted, then turned to Krane. "Look, am I the only one here who's worried about this place's safety? Any minute now, the man could send us a bug in the mail. One of us could be wearing a wire right now… sir, permission to do an exam on Dr. Krane?"

"Denied," Kaminko said simply. "And if we're pulling this conversation to greeting cards, I-"

*_knock knoc_k_*_

"Come in!" Kaminko yelled impatiently.

The door was opened quite gently, and everyone was surprised to see Touko White entering the office. The normally aggressive and almost painfully invasive White was actually looking meek and downhearted. Her brown hair, usually ending in stylish, curly locks, was hanging straight today.

"Sir?" White said quietly. "I… I have a request…"

"Make it quick!" Kaminko said. "We're having a meeting."

"Yes, I can see that…" White sighed. "Requesting permission to leave the base for a few hours, sir."

Kaminko, Krane, Elm and Blaine stared at White as if she had gone mad… well, madder than usual. She hadn't left the base in a year, not since the accident that forced her to become SledgeHammer's drill instructor instead. White seemed to realize why the others stared at her.

"They bulldozed the Soul House in Lavender Town away a few weeks ago," White explained, "and replaced it with a human cemetery. They threw all those Pokémon corpses in a hole somewhere… anyway, that doesn't matter. I'm going to see… to visit Touya's memorial site… if I may…"

White trailed off a bit and turned away from the others, her voice breaking down a bit. Elm coughed awkwardly, but Blaine didn't sugarcoat his thoughts:

"See? This is _just_ what I meant!" he shouted and banged the table with his fist, causing Elm to flinch. "I try to maintain a certain level of security here and now we have _another_ person who just wants to come and go however she feels like! We already have troubles with agent nine, you know, the guy who rides the short bus. And now _Touko_!"

"I know that security is your jurisdiction, Blaine," Kaminko said calmly, "but I'd also like to point out that I'm in command here. Lieutenant White, you may go, but you must return within four hours. If you're not in the base by then, we'll take that as a sign that you have decided to desert."

"Thank you, sir!" White said, sniffed and saluted. "So, I'll just be, uh… going. Now. Bye!"

When White left the office, Blaine crossed his arms and looked grumpy, though it was hard to see what he thought when most of his face was obscured by his moustache and his sunglasses, and his shining bald tended to blind those trying to look into his direction.

"No one respects security protocol anymore," he grumbled, "bunch of ingrates, lousy bastards, mumble, grumble…"

"As long as we're on the subject," Kaminko said, "where are you keeping Touya? I'm assuming he's deactivated at the moment."

"Yeah," Blaine replied, still sounding a bit grumpy. "He's in the vault. Only you, me and Elm have clearance, Clarence. I mean, Kaminko. Sir."

"And me, of course!" Krane said.

"Duhh, no!" Blaine mocked and laughed at Krane. "Hah! You really thought I'd let you near my most prized creation? Get real."

"You know, you're right, Blaine," Krane said and grinned. "Your 'prized creations' tend to be a little unsafe, as Fuji JR and all those other scientists at the old Cinnabar Lab can attest. Oh, wait, no they can't! Unless we get a medium here…"

"Screw you, Krane!"

"Can't we get through a single conference without some sort of calamity?" Kaminko groaned. "Now, can we please get back to the point? I have a feeling that we can't hide the existence of Touya from Lt. White anymore. What do you say, Krane?"

"She was definitely unlike her usual self today," Krane said, pretending to come across as a knowledgeable guy. He crossed his legs and started to smoke an imaginary cigar. "If we want her to be in good condition, maybe we should let her know that Touya is… well, _sort of_ alive."

"It seems to be time, yes," Kaminko pondered. "Blaine, do you think can White can be fooled for the time being?"

"As long as she doesn't spend too much time with him… yes!"

"Excuse me!" Elm cried out.

He looked anxious, and his glasses were tilted again. He had also had quite enough of the blatantly unethical methods of dealing with things, and fooling someone into thinking that their lover had returned from the dead crossed some sort of line that Kaminko, Krane and Blaine apparently didn't see.

"It's just that," Elm flustered, surprised that the others were finally listening to him. "They used to be lovers! During their training period here you almost never saw them apart! Don't you think that Touko will notice that something is wrong with Touya?"

Kaminko, Krane and Blaine just stared at Elm, who moaned and slammed his head on the table.

"Forget it…" he muttered.

"It is decided, then," Kaminko said. "Blaine, go reactivate him. Elm, go tell Ein and Celio to prepare the cameras. Good thing we have satellite feed…"

* * *

**Lavender Town, Kanto**

This gray, almost lifeless town felt even quieter than before as White stood smack-dab in the middle of a graveyard. She couldn't even hear the sound of wind blowing or the Spearow flying from one tree to another. White couldn't see anything, either. As she stood there, staring at Touya's tombstone and holding a bouquet of flowers in her hands, her vision was entirely blurred by tears. Nothing lay underneath the ground, as Touya's body was never recovered. Even the engraving on the stone was nothing else than "R.I.P. Touya xxx", the last name being crossed out.

White quickly wiped her eyes and her nose in case someone would see her, and placed the bouquet next to the tombstone. She took her cap off, letting her hair move freely, just as Touya had liked it.

"I've been… thinking about you a lot lately," White mumbled, looking at her feet instead of the tombstone. "It's been a year, hasn't it? I'm… okay, I guess."

White sighed. It was as if Touya was somehow speaking into her ear, instantly picking up on her lies.

"Okay, I'm not okay!" she snapped. "Every day I hope that it would have been me that day instead of you. I wish that we could have gone away together… anything but this!"

It was winter in Unova and in the real world, perhaps, but in Atlantica, the Pokémon World, and especially in Kanto, everything remained the same. Lavender Town was as monochromatic as ever. Ugly gray statues were littered all over the graveyard, with Murkrow making nests in them and emitting ungodly noises. The sky, the landscape, _everything_ was just so… gray. At that exact moment, White felt like screaming at the entire world.

"I've been stuck inside for a whole year! I have to work with a bunch of retards who don't know which end of the gun is for shooting and which one for aiming! I try my best but my bosses don't give a shit! I HATE THIS!"

White stomped on the flowers that she had brought, flattening them into mush. She squeezed her cap tightly, almost to the breaking point, while grinding her teeth.

"I feel like… like I should just steal one of the Electrode from the base and blow it up near the fuel tanks! I feel like grabbing a blaster and just frying everyone I meet! I feel like-"

"Touko."

White flinched and turned around quickly, almost falling as she did so. Just a few feet away from her, stood the very man who White came to see. White dropped her cap, and a gust of wind soon picked it up. The cap floated towards the man, who grabbed it. White had to move a bit closer to the guy to get confirmation.

It was Touya. White's blue-eyes came into contact with Touya' chocolate-brown ones. On top his auburn-colored hair, Touya wore a cap almost identical to Touko's, only that the PokéBall-logo on his one was black. He even wore the very same clothes that he had worn a year ago: a light blue sweater, gray pants and red shoes. Only thing that was different about him was that he seemed… smaller. Or maybe it was just that White had spent the year increasing the size of her muscles, so Touya felt puny in comparison to her?

White closed her eyes. Then she opened them again. Touya continued to defy all odds, standing there and holding White's cap in his hands and smiling oddly. White felt like she was ready to pass out. She could only open her mouth stupidly and make stuttering noises:

"You… but… how… wha?"

"It's good to see you again, Touko," Touya said monotonously.

"Y-you too," White stuttered, still unable to comprehend the situation, "but… how can you be… there?"

Touya spread his arms as if to signal unawareness. White got a bit closer to him. Though previously she would have traveled through hell and back just to be with Touya, she suddenly felt all weird around him. Somehow, Touya's answer didn't suffice.

"To elaborate," Touya said, "I woke up in a hospital just this morning. I have been in some sort of coma. But that hasn't stopped me from dreaming…"

Touya took a few steps closer towards White as well. He was now close enough to hand White the cap that she had dropped. White took it and put it on, but did everything slowly and warily, constantly staring at Touya's face. Everything looked like him all right… there was even a familiar scar in the earlobe.

"…about you," Touya finished his sentence.

White took her eyes off Touya's ears and looked deep into his eyes now. The pieces were beginning to fall in place: even the pathetic attempts at making romantic lines. It looked, sounded and acted like him now… but there was only one thing that really confirmed whether or not he was really Touya.

White didn't say a word. Simply put her hand in her pocket and pulled out a round, white object. It was the other half of a split Poké Ball. She held it high for Touya to see.

And, just as wordlessly, Touya replied. He put his hand in the pocket of his sweater and pulled out the red half. White tried to restrain herself, but failed miserably: a bright, wide smile somehow appeared on her face, and Touya responded to this just as brightly. During that precise moment, when Touya and Touko combined the halves of their Poké Ball, White was happier than she had been in a whole year.

* * *

_White's Flashback_

**White's House, Kanoko Town, Unova **_June 25__th__, 2084_

A beautiful summer day in Unova, and what better way to spend the afternoon than to stay inside playing videogames. That's what I thought during that one unforgettable day when me and my best friend Touya sat on my bed. Though we were only inches away from each other, our eyes were glued on the screen, our hands gripping tightly on our Wiimotes, which we twisted around like there was no tomorrow.

"Hah!" I laughed at Touya. "You got hit by a green shell! Concentrate!"

"I suck at Mario Kart," Touya whined in his usual way. "Can't we play NSMBW?"

"What?"

"I'm starting to use acronyms, 'cuz I don't want to be bothered by long titles," he replied to my confused expression while throwing a banana skin at me (in the game). "Ain't I hip?"

"Totally," I remarked. "Ooh, final lap!"

"Weren't you supposed to be at Cheren's house by four?" Touya asked - he sounded slightly tense, which pleased me.

"I guess so," I said and bit my lip when trying to get through a ridiculously steep curve. "We'll do Rainbow Road after this, and then I'll start to get ready. Fine?"

"Fine," Touya sighed.

I laughed a bit. Though I carefully disguised it as a feeling of triumph I got for successfully evading dodging Touya's attempt to shell me, it wasn't really that. Touya was _jeaaaalouuus_. Hah! I told him I'd do it before him. Today was the day. I ould just feel it. And, without even noticing at first, I crossed the finish line while Touya was still fumbling around with his kart.

"Hahah! Eat that, loser!" I cheered and dropped my remote on the bed.

Touya bit his lip, but didn't say anything. I laughed and collapsed on my back. Why bother even brushing my hair or putting makeup or do any of that boring shit? It's not like that geek Cheren had a choice. Touya seemed to think somewhat differently.

"Well?" he said and put away his Wiimote. "Or is that your idea of 'getting ready'?"

I looked at Touya from the corner of my eye. He looked at me in the eyes, but or moment there, I was pretty sure that his eyes trailed off elsewhere. I smirked at him.

"I'm always ready. What's the matter? Feeling a bit crabby after losing to a girl?"

"There's no shame in that," Touya grumbled and turned away from me.

But I could see that he smiled as well - he was just too nice of a guy to ever stay mad at me for long. As he sat on the edge of the bed carelessly, I placed my head on his knees and looked up to him temptingly - I just knew it was enough to make him go nuts. He kept his cool this time, but I knew he was secretly boiling inside. Like always, he started stroking my hair as if he was holding a Glameow on his lap or something.

"Tell me the truth, Touko," he said, "what do you see in Cheren, honestly?"

"Well, unlike you and me, he's 18. He has a car, even!"

Touya continued his stroking, but he looked down at me rather contemptuously.

"Well, that's not _all_, obviously," I said and Touya scoffed. "Honestly! I know he's a bit geeky, but he has money, and lately, he's been getting a lot of things done with it too. People can be bought just as easily as Potions! Plus, he's going to tell me something important today!"

"Maybe he's going to come out of the closet?" Touya suggested semi-sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"You wish! Nah, I think tonight's the night when we're moving away from 'silly teen romance' and towards 'serious business'. Just think about it… if I marry him, I probably don't have to worry about money _at all_. I can concentrate doing what I like instead of doing what I have to!"

"But…"

Touya looked like he had been genuinely offended - something about him just made him look like a sad Growlithe at the moment - his eyes going all round and his lips starting to wobble. I was starting to hope he'd man up a bit.

"Weren't we supposed to… go on a Pokémon journey? As soon as the Professor gets a fresh batch of starters, we were going to start traveling around Unova…"

I sighed. Now we were getting _really_ awkward here…

"Touya, you're my best friend," I told him, being completely serious this time, "so you should know that I may have different goals. There's this thing called the E4 Task Force, where they train trainers as much as they train Pokémon! And I think I can get there without actually having to bother getting a stupid critter that I'll be stuck with all my life…"

"What is it with you and Pokémon?" Touya asked.

When he attempted to continue stroking my hair, I grabbed his hand and pulled it away. Did he _really_ have to bring that up? I lifted my head up and looked elsewhere. For all it was worth, Touya seemed to realize his foolishness.

"I… sorry, I didn't mean to be so stupid," he said sincerely. "Hey, c'mon!"

Just as quickly as that, I forgave him. What would he think of me if I kept crying about it like a sissy? And it had been thirteen years already. I could almost look at Carnivine without cringing now, anyway…

"Yeah, let's not talk about that," I said and turned to face Touya again.

"Now _this_ is what I meant!" Touya said happily and put his arm on my rather broad shoulders - this time, it felt like he actually wasn't trying to unhook my bra. "Best friends getting along," he continued. "Boyfriends and girlfriends come and go, but what we have here is going to last _forever_, I think."

"I think I'm getting cavities here," I told him, in hopes of preventing him from making any more 'friends forever'-speeches.

But Touya didn't seem to listen to me. He stood up and took something from his pocket. I sat on the bed and watched in confusion as he held two halves of a Poké Ball in his hand. The ball had broken when he dragged me along to the Great Marsh with him to get me over that whole Carnivine thing - he really thought I was some kind of weakling! Anyway, for some reason, Touya still carried them around. He grabbed my hand, opened it, and dropped the white half on my palm.

"Touya… what are you doing?"

"I'm going to carry my half around, always," he replied. "And if we're really best friends, you'll carry around yours. Now, if you decide not to accompany me when I get my Pokémon, you'll at least have something to remember me by. Deal?"

"Is this like one of those stupid friendship bracelet thingies?" I wondered. "Lame!"

"I guess it is," Touya shrugged, "but I'm going to keep my end of the bargain. Even in the face of death, I would still cling on to this. I'm going to make sure they're going to bury me with it. Even after my death, when St. Peter, or Satan, himself tries to take it from me, I'll just give him the finger and hold on to my half! Even when the devil's little minions are sticking their pitchforks deep into my-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it!" I interrupted him. "Listen, Touya, during your rambling, I did some thinking, and… I'm going to consider your proposal. Maybe going on a Pokémon journey with you wouldn't be so bad after all. Maybe I could somehow convince Cheren to come along… oh, crap, the date!"

I stood up, turned off my Wii and my TV and looked at my reflection from the mirror.

"So, whaddya think, bra or no bra today?"

Touya scrunched up his face in a ridiculous manner, prompting me to double over and start laughing my ass off. What a guy…

That was also the last laugh I got that day. The supposed 'date' ended up in Cheren driving off and me left with an expensive restaurant bill. Me being a minor, the restaurant soon called my mom about that and hilarity did _not _ensue. I hate it when Touya is right…

_End of Flashback_

* * *

**SledgeHammer HQ, Blaine's Office  
**_10:58 PM_.

Sitting behind his desk and buried up to his nose in a pile of paperwork, Blaine scratched his bald head, attempting to figure out a gigantic map that he had rolled open on his desk. Blaine heard someone knocking on the door, but merely grunted, as he didn't bother conjuring any words at the moment. Blaine's eyelids felt incredibly heavy as he struggled to keep his eyes open at least for a few minutes… he needed to figure it out…

The door was opened, and Professor Elm stepped in. In his hands, he held two mugs of steaming hot coffee, the scent of which immediately refreshed Blaine.

"Ahhh… thanks!" Blaine said as he took the coffee cup from Elm. "And thanks for staying to do this nightshift with me."

"Do you ever take a rest?" Elm wondered and sat down on a chair on the other side of Blaine's desk. "Like, do you ever go home?"

"This _is _my home," Blaine insisted.

He took a sip of coffee and started to look at the map with a magnifying glass. It felt like the coffee started doing its work instantly, as Blaine could keep his eyes open much better now.

"Also, this isn't technically an assignment that I got from Kaminko," Blaine said and carelessly took another sip of coffee, smearing his moustache with it. "My initiative. I'm trying to figure out where Red has went… but it seems that I have checked every place, watched every satellite picture and called everyone _everywhere_ and yet I get nothing. It's like he vanished off the face of the Earth or something."

While listening to Blaine patiently, Elm also turned on a radio. Blaine didn't mind, although he grimaced a bit - he was sick and tired of the show where the hosts took every opportunity to tell what a good thing it was that the government could now watch people take showers. You know, in the name of the greater good. Elm had to take the radio away from Blaine's room every time they ran out of coffee.

It seemed that the news were on now, and Elm turned up the volume:

"…_but obviously, everyone in that town probably went on vacation or something, so there's really no need for alarm, people. And what's with this talk about 'hydrogen bomb tests in Orre' we've been hearing? It's just thunderclouds, people! Anyway, in other news, alleged Pokémon Trainer Evan Platonson was taken to a mental asylum after being found naked on a back alley in Eterna City, talking to a piece of tree bark, apparently thinking that it was a Shinx that he owned. Doctors have diagnosed that Mr. Platonson is a 'freak'_."

"You know, I've just talked to White, and she seems like a whole different person now," Elm told Blaine, who grunted a frustrated reply from behind his paper piles. "I have to admit it, Blaine. That Touya project of yours… it really works. _He_ really works. I'm confused about it."

"Well, the reconstruction was only 0,00001% away from being perfect," Blaine muttered and marked an 'x' on another piece of his map. "He has a package and everything, so he's a guy for sure."

"_…in other news, members of a terrorist organization titled 'The Seven Sages' have been arrested all over Sinnoh during the recent week, and one has been found from every major Sinnoh city. Though we don't have any excuses to put these people in the chair yet, the police are working feverishly on making up phony evidence to prove these scumbags guilty. The terrorist organization apparently named itself after the legendary unit of soldiers that operated during the Pokémon-Human war. Police have still been unable to confirm if this group has any connection to the radical activist group Team Plasma, but Inspector Looker from the International Police promises to start working on this as soon as he can be bothered._"

"That reminds me," Elm said, hoping to keep up conversation with Blaine going, as he knew how unresponsive Blaine was when working. "Lyra… damn, I mean, six has been gone for days now. What do you think happened to her?"

"I don't lose any sleep over it," Blaine said. "Just tell White to come up with something. She's apparently fine now."

"_…and finally, our reporters talked to the owner of Ditters, an adorable little Ditto who's putting his special abilities in use and helping his community. Ditters, who lives in Fuchsia City, has recently transformed itself into various objects and people to provide entertainment and fun for the whole community. Ditters' owner had this to say_:"

"_I'm making so much money that I quit that job at the Safari Zone! Thanks to Ditters, guys who couldn't get any can simply get some release in form of completely lifelike illusions. Sure, Ditters' transformations aren't always spot on, but we're getting there_."

"_Cool. How much for him to transform into Jessica Alba?_"

"_Fifty poké-dollars per hour_."

"_…yeah, okay_."

"_…eww! I mean, uhh… that is all. This has been 'Reliable News'. And now it's time for some music. Goodnight!_"

"Ooh, I love this song!" Elm exclaimed and turned the volume up even more, much to Blaine's chagrin.

"_Oh it's such a perfect day/I'm glad I spent it with you…_"

"Elm…" Blaine said and took his eyes off the map for a moment.

"Mm?"

Blaine took off his sunglasses, revealing a pair of small, green eyes. Elm was shocked; this _had_ to be serious. As far as Elm could remember, Blaine even _slept_ with those glasses on. He had very noticeable bags under his slightly reddish eyes, which Elm instantly took notice of, but didn't have time to point out, as Blaine glared at him angrily.

"I've just been working a lot, okay?" he snapped. "Do you think I'm some sort of crybaby?"

"No, no, no! Not at all! What is it, Blaine?"

The song on the radio had changed:

"_… you make me smile like the sun/Fall out of bed/Sing like a bird/Dizzy in my head…_"

"It's just… Touya's just a prototype, remember that!" Blaine said. "Genesect is still in that tank downstairs, but… what if I don't succeed with this? I mean, I hate Kaminko, but that guy know his stuff, and I don't want to disappoint him. I want to succeed for once in my life. But… I just can't get over that last failure…"

Elm took a sip of coffee, pushed up his glasses and listened. It was not like Blaine to suddenly open up, and this was an especially touchy subject. What was going on with him?

It had been about six years or so since Blaine put together a team of researchers to use Mew's DNA to create the greatest Pokémon man had ever seen. The whole project was shady from day one, considering that Giovanni himself had funded it. But Blaine, along with the project's co-director, Fuji JR (son of Dr. Fuji, the Pokémon Lab's founder and Blaine's friend) believed in the cause, no matter who paid for it. Both for different reasons, but nonetheless. After many failures, the Pokémon Lab finally succeeded in the creation of Mewtwo.

But then happened the little incident we all knew of. Apparently, Mewtwo, a creation with its own free will, _didn't_ want to spend its life as Giovanni's slave (gee, the scientists should have probably thought of that first). Mewtwo decided to get the hell out, and for good measure, blew up the old Pokémon Lab and all the scientists within it, too. Fuji JR and five other scientists were killed. The rest were moved into the new lab, but both Fuji SR and Blaine retired from science. Fuji moved to Lavender Town and Blaine became the eccentric recluse of a gym leader. Though Blaine would have liked to return to his research, no one trusted him enough and he was considered a laughingstock amongst the scientific community. But once he became friends with Professor Elm and earned his trust, he could return to his research while working for SledgeHammer.

Blaine snapped his fingers in front of Professor Elm, who had somehow gotten lost amidst his thoughts again.

"Whah? Oh, sorry, Blaine, I zoned out."

"Again," Blaine grunted. "Anyway, you know the story, so I'm not gonna bother telling you it in the form of a lengthy flashback-"

"We really don't have time anyway," Elm said.

"Uh… yeah. But that Mewtwo… it haunts my dreams _and_ my waking hours equally. Every once in a while I have the same dream of it blowing up Fuji's son…"

Blaine paused a bit and quickly put his sunglasses back on. Elm looked away.

"It's not just Red I want to find. Shortly before he disappeared, I gave him a mission to hunt down Mewtwo. I've never told this to anyone, because I kept the whole mission under wraps but… well, let's just say there _might_ be a connection. I have a feeling that if I find Red, I'll also find Mewtwo… and when I do… well, let's just say that I'll sleep easy after I've done!"

Elm sighed and took off his glasses. He started to polish them carelessly with his sleeve while wondering how to put his thoughts into words that wouldn't piss Blaine off.

"So, you really are behind Kaminko's 'kill those lousy legendaries' plan?" he asked.

"Of course!" Blaine said. "Aren't you?"

"I… yes, obviously I am… just in a different way… but listen. Even though we may have different methods of operating, I want you to know, that whatever you decide to do with Red or Mewtwo or Genesect or whatever… I'm 100% behind you. If you need help, you know where to find it."

"Thanks, dude!" Blaine said and raised his coffee cup. "To science!"

"To science!"

Elm and Blaine drank their coffee, which had already gone cold during their long-winded discussion and tasted like puke. Nonetheless, the two men forced it down while listening to Queen on the radio:

"_…and I want you to know/That my feelings are true/I really love you/Oh, you're my best friend…_"

"Bleah!" Blaine yelled and threw his coffee cup at the radio, instantly silencing it. "I hate this song!"


	7. Silver Blaze

_**SILVER BLAZE**_

**Viridian City, Kanto  
**_February 18__th__, 11 PM_

__Silver sat on a bench right next to the Pokémon Mart. It was very dark outside, and people were only walking on the streets to quickly get into their houses. While sitting there, illuminated only by the streetlight next to him, Silver watched the people around him. Mostly, they were just Team Rocket Grunts and people trying to avoid Team Rocket Grunts. Silver's Sneasel sat on the bench next to him, but Silver paid no attention to its attempts to grab its master's attention.

Silver simply sat there and stared at his feet. A spectator would have had a hard time seeing past his long, red hair which covered half of his face, which was locked in 'permanent scowl'-mode anyways. His stomach was queasy and his hands trembled when he thought about that meeting. He carried a briefcase with him: a case full of money, but the thought of keeping the cash and taking the next flight away didn't exactly enter his mind.

He watched with some interest as Rocket Grunts pushed people around, threatening them and yelling at them, forcing them to get into their houses. All complied, except one old woman, who kept on walking slowly and confidently, walking her Meowth around. The Meowth, kept in a leash, excitedly rushed towards Silver's Sneasel upon noticing it, and started sniffing Silver's legs wildly. Silver squinted.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, young man," the old lady laughed. "Come on, Meowth! Let's go!"

But the Meowth just started purring and brushing itself against Silver's leg. Silver felt awkward, and he was only seconds away from ordering his Sneasel to slice the annoying cat into pieces. Silver punted Meowth with his leg gently, as if to push it away, but the Meowth just got more excited and started jumping around and meowing loudly. A Rocket Grunt patrolling nearby seemed to notice this and started approaching the old lady.

"Oh, I apologize on my Meowth's behalf," the old lady said sweetly and picked the Pokémon up. "She tends to get a bit excited, don't you Meowth? Anyway, good evening to you."

"Hey! You!"

The old lady stopped smiling the moment she turned around and saw the Rocket Grunt approaching her rudely. Silver stayed put and observed the situation.

"Why are you still hanging outside?" the grunt spat at the old woman. "It's past curfew. Get inside already and take your filthy cat with you!"

"I'm not afraid of you Rocket types," the old lady said, looking up at the much more bigger grunt. "This is our city, and we should be moving around freely! Ever since you started coming here and making your little rules, our lives have been nothing but misery. I'm allowed to let my Meowth out every night, thank you very much!"

"Listen, lady, I'm not asking you again," the grunt said threateningly and pulled out a knife. "Get your ass inside already!"

"That was our cue," Silver muttered to his Sneasel, and they both stood up.

Silver and Sneasel left the bench and stepped between the old lady and the grunt. The grunt took a few steps backwards and looked surprised.

"Who are you?" he yelled at Silver. "Shouldn't you be inside, huh? Get outta here, I have business with this senile old tramp!"

"Not anymore," Silver told the grunt.

Blending well into the dark background, Sneasel sneaked behind the Rocket Grunt completely unnoticed and lunged at him, striking the knife away from his hands. Both Silver and the old lady backed away. The grunt attempted to reach for his Poké Ball, but Sneasel was faster and slashed his hand.

"EEEAAAAAHHH!"

The Rocket Grunt screamed and fell on his knees, his right hand covered in blood. He stared at the stub which was once his index finger, while the finger itself had flown a few feet away. The old lady behind Silver gasped from terror, but Silver ignored her.

"Finish him," Silver said to his Sneasel.

Sneasel raised its arm, but hesitated. The Rocket Grunt was on his knees, whimpering pathetically and holding his hand.

"Please… please…"

"Do it!" Silver shouted.

One swift motion, and Sneasel ran its sharp claws across the Rocket's throat. More blood spewed out, some of it spilling on Sneasel. When the Rocket's corpse hit the ground, Silver just looked on coldly with his hands in his pocket.

"You… you killed him!" the old lady whimpered.

"Yes, aren't you observant," Silver said. "He was threatening you! You could at least be grateful!"

But the old lady just turned away and almost ran away from Silver, holding tightly on her Meowth. Silver sneered at this. Sneasel had a terrified expression on its face while it stared at its claw, soaked in blood.

"Should I have given him hugs and kissed instead?" Silver said. "Hah! If we can't even protect ourselves properly, what hope do we have as a species? Sneasel! Throw the body away. They'll be here any minute now."

_A few minutes later…_

Finally, after some waiting, Silver saw the blinding headlights of a limousine briefly, before it pulled over about fifteen yards away from Silver and turned the lights off. Three Rocket Grunts stepped out of the car. One of them was the instantly recognizable, tall, bewhiskered Fernando wearing a domino mask again for whatever reason. Behind his subordinates was Giovanni.

Silver dropped his act and stopped frowning for a second. Giovanni, his father, looked almost unrecognizable now. The last time Silver saw him, it was during Team Rocket's previous rise to power seven years ago. It was then when Silver first realized his father's identity. Now, as he saw Giovanni's grim face, all those feelings of betrayal and abandonment came back into Silver's head. He started to tremble and he had to look away from Giovanni, who kept staring at him.

As always, Giovanni had dark, well-combed hair and a build comparable to Schwarzenegger's. But his face… there was something creepy about it. After many plastic surgeries, Giovanni's face was almost completely symmetrical and void of any wrinkles or any remarkable facial features, making him look like something out of a wax museum. Silver signaled Sneasel to stand in front of him, as he still had to be wary in his father's company. The last encounter had been painful enough, and Silver didn't want to start reopening any old wounds.

"Do you have the money?" Giovanni asked coldly, as if talking to a complete stranger.

"Yes," Silver replied just as emotionlessly. "A hundred thousand poké-dollars. Right here."

Silver tapped his briefcase. He hoped that it was dark enough so that the Rocket Grunt's blood on the ground wasn't visible. Giovanni jerked his head in Fernando's direction, and Fernando nodded obediently. He took a few steps towards Silver and showed that he also had a briefcase with him.

"All sixteen plates are there," Giovanni stated.

"How do we do this?" Silver asked, and couldn't help but to add: "I'm assuming that you've experienced a quite a few of these, haven't you?"

But Giovanni just nodded, completely unmoved by Silver's remark.

"Fernando here will leave the briefcase in the middle," Giovanni said. "Similarly, you will put your briefcase next to it. Then you pick up the plates and Fernando picks up the money and we all walk away. The rest of us will make sure everything goes as planned."

"You have you cronies behind you, but who's going to look after me?" Silver asked.

"You should have thought about that before you came," Giovanni said and smiled.

His smiling made him look even more horrible. It was not a warmhearted, happy smile, but a forced, menacing grin. He didn't show his teeth and he generally seemed to have troubles expressing emotions, as if he had injected a gallon of Botox on his face.

"Aww, isn't this nice?" Fernando said obliviously. "Father and son meet again. _The cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon, something something something, oh, sweet child of mine_ and so on. So sweet! You know, I've been working on this novel, where-"

"The briefcase, Fernando," Giovanni ordered.

"Sure, boss!" Fernando nodded. "Whatever you say."

Fernando walked a few feet forward until he was exactly in the middle of the transaction. He put the briefcase containing the plates on the ground, then quickly scuttled away to Giovanni. Silver sighed deeply and started to approach. But he wasn't going to let Giovanni get away so easily this time. He _had_ to make sure his father would remember this event. He walked excruciatingly slowly towards the briefcase and looked into his father's gaunt face.

"So how have you been?" Silver asked. "You know, when you haven't been trying to make the world into a personal playground?"

"I didn't come here to exchange pleasantries," Giovanni said. "Drop the briefcase and go!"

"In a minute, in a minute," Silver said, taking just one step at a time, walking as slowly as possible. "Though I doubt you have ever exchanged pleasantries with anyone, _Giovanni_. That's just the way you roll, isn't it? Marry some rich lady, leech off her money for a few years, but as soon as the kids come and the responsibility goes, you get the hell out. How many other children have you conceived all around the world? Is it a three-digit number already?"

Giovanni didn't smile anymore.

"Life is a game," he said, "and I play to win. We all more or less follow the established rules. But one day, I got tired of being a pawn and became a player. You can play by the rules all your life, _Silver_," he added, adding emphasis on the last word, infuriating Silver, "but wouldn't you rather be the one who _makes_ the rules?"

"Where did you hear _that_ philosophy?" Silver wondered. "In the pub, or…?"

"I didn't expect you to understand," Giovanni said, "but it won't take long for you to see the bigger picture. I hope. Now quit stalling around. Put the briefcase down."

Silver had arrived next to the case containing the plates of origin. With his free hand, he reached for the plates, while he lowered the money slowly with his other hand. Just then, he heard rustling in the bushes. From the corner of his eye, he saw something emerging from the bushes, and dropped the money.

"_SNEASEL_!" Silver shouted.

His Pokémon ran to him, but Silver was too late: a yellow, dragonfly-like Pokémon with green, rhombus-shaped wings and big, green eyes emerged from the bushes and charged towards Silver. Silver instantly recognized it as a Vibrava, and thanked his lucky stars that he had an ice-type with him.

"Ice Shard!" Silver ordered.

Sneasel attempted to fire sharp ice projectiles towards the Vibrava, but it dodged them effortlessly and charged towards the confused Rocket Grunts instead. The two other grunts cowered behind the limousine, but Fernando stepped gallantly (well, by his standards) forward.

"Never fear, boss, for I am here to protect you!" Fernando announced, perhaps a bit too loudly.

"I don't _need_ protection," Giovanni snapped. "Just get the cash, and quick!"

While both Silver and his Sneasel fought the Vibrava and the Rockets argued amongst themselves, another Pokémon appeared from the same bush: an Aipom. The little Pokémon scuttled towards the briefcase containing the plates and grabbed it with the hand-shaped appendage on the end of its tail. Silver turned around just in time to see the Aipom running with the briefcase.

"Hey!"

Silver attempted to chase the Aipom, but as soon as he started running, the Vibrava hovered in front of him and shot a burst of dragonfire towards him. Silver dodged, but the Aipom disappeared into the darkness, the plates with it. Meanwhile, Fernando's Victreebel snatched the briefcase containing the money. Silver tried to grab it, but Victreebel threw the case directly into Fernando's hands.

"Oh, for me?" Fernando exclaimed dramatically and held the briefcase against his chest. "Why, _thank you_. Laterz!"

While the Vibrava also flew away, Fernando and Giovanni entered their limousine, which drove away and soon faded from Silver's view. Silver could only stand still, next to his Sneasel, wondering what the hell had just happened. The only thing he knew for certain was that the boss not going to be happy about this…

**

* * *

**

**SledgeHammer HQ, Laboratory**

Silver sat on a chair in one of the lower chambers of the laboratories, where he had a full view of Heatran. He could stare directly into its perpetually wide-open, orange eyes. But that was not why he was there. Holding the remains of the room's electronic lock in his hands, Silver merely waited for Leaf's arrival.

A few minutes later, Leaf indeed came - and unfortunately for Silver, was accompanied by Nilsson, another scientist. Silver turned around in his chair the moment he heard their voices from outside the room:

"Nilsson! Look! Someone has broken the lock!"

"Oh, Leaf, my dear, don't you trouble your head with that. I'll go in first to protect you!"

"Do you actually think I _need_ protection? Besides, I have a hunch…"

Leaf and the smarmy Nilsson stormed in, only to witness Silver sitting casually in the chair, tossing the lock from one hand to another. He smiled and pretended to be surprised when Leaf stepped in, but Leaf merely gritted her teeth and squinted. Somehow, Silver didn't feel very welcome.

"What did I tell you?" she yelled at Silver. "Mr. Blaine will hear from this, I swear! GET OUT!"

"Oh, I'm terrified," Silver deadpanned, but nevertheless got off the chair and looked at Nilsson, who somehow had forgotten to 'protect' Leaf. Silver looked at him. "What's this oil slick doing standing upright? What is it called?"

"Dr. N-nilsson, at your suh-service," Nilsson said. "Um… I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave. That is, uh… Leaf, is this man bothering you?"

"Isn't it kinda obvious?" Leaf groaned. "Just get him out of here, I don't have the energy for this! I have a _looong_ shift ahead of me."

"But at least you'll have me here to keep you company!" Nilsson said.

Leaf didn't respond to this, merely grumbled something and walked to the panoramic window to look at Heatran. Nilsson grabbed Silver's shoulder, but Silver quickly twisted Nilsson's arm behind his back.

"Ow ow ow!" Nilsson whined and Silver let go. "Fine, I suppose you can walk out by yourself…"

Silver and Nilsson walked out of the room, and as soon as the door closed, Nilsson started babbling:

"Look, man, I'm sorry, but I needed to boost my status in front of Leaf, y'know? No hard feelings? Uh, what is your name? What were you doing there?"

"No, I don't know," Silver said, "yes, there are hard feelings, my name is Silver and what I was doing there was none of your business. What the hell is your deal with Leaf?"

"Hey, man, chill out!" Nilsson flustered and laughed nervously. "Look, I haven't had any in a long time, besides, I think Leaf there is a pretty easy case."

Silver squinted. He clenched his hands into fists and was shaking all over. He had to use all his mental capacity to avoid knocking a few teeth off that slimy, pompous, overbearing, delusional Nilsson, who just stood there with a smug expression. Instead of slugging him, Silver asked a simple question, his voice a bit shaken:

"What do you mean, Nilsson?"

"I have worked with her here, and Dr. Juniper made us lab partners a few weeks back," Nilsson explained. "I know how she is: depressed, vulnerable… I contacted a friend of mine to search her background. I know _exactly_ which strings to pull to get her on her back. And it helps my case that she can hit the bottle pretty easily…"

"Uh huh… I see…"

Silver's voice was forced and he barely opened his mouth while talking, as he was too busy grinding his teeth together. But Nilsson didn't seem to notice a thing, merely patted Silver on the shoulder in a condescending manner.

"Well, see ya later, Sliver… or whatever it was," Nilsson said and grinned. "I gotta go now - who knows, if I manage to get into her pants tonight, maybe she'll put the good word ahead… I might be facing a promotion here. Bye!"

And just like that, Nilsson returned to the room where Leaf was, leaving Silver standing alone in the aisle. He checked his Pokétch - for a moment, he thought about shooting an Ice Shard into Nilsson's throat just for that. Nilsson reminded Silver too much of a certain other guy…

**

* * *

**

_Silver's Flashback_

**Leaf's Apartment, Pewter City** _May 5__th__, 2095_

I sat on Leaf's bed, looking around her glorious, one-bedroom apartment. The wall was full of decorative bullet holes and there was some sort of strange dark spot in the ceiling. And somehow, it was still a lot nicer than the orphanage…

After living on the streets, surviving mainly with scraps, salvaged and whatever I managed to take from stores, I finally hit big when I met Leaf. I started by sneaking into her car when the local citizens of Pewter were chasing after me a while back. It was a close call, but I was able to make up a sob story that made Leaf believe I was merely going to see my father. I have already seen him once… and that didn't go over too well. I have decided that if he doesn't want to see me, then I _definitely_ don't want to see him! I merely wanted that Boulder Badge 'cuz I heard that newbie trainers paid a lot of money for those - apparently, there's a guy in Pewter City who somehow won't let people leave before they have the badge.

Anyway, we both sat on her bed soon enough, only inches away from each other. She smelled kinda nice, I have to admit… and there was something about her long, brown hair, her big blue eyes and the fact that she would occasionally correct my grammar and educate me on Pokémon-related trivia.

"So there are these two fossils in Hoenn," Leaf lectured while I kept nodding and listening, "the Root Fossil and the Claw Fossil. The cool thing is, if you take one, the other one sinks for whatever reason. Maybe it's an example of the mechanisms invented by the precursors, which is really cool, considering it was made like a million years ago. Now, they said that you can resurrect either a Lileep or an Anorith, which I would like to try. They both look kinda odd, but I really like Anorith's evolution-"

I kept looking into her eyes and occasionally saying something like 'yeah' and 'oh, cool' or something to that effect. When she started her jargon about Pokémon DNA and the latest developments in fossil resurrection, I just stopped understanding. But damn, it's so hot that she knows all that! She herself seemed to realize this after a few minutes of babbling:

"Oh, crap!" she exclaimed and laughed. "I'm sorry, Silver, you must be so bored."

"Bored?" I said. "Maybe if you started yammering on about fashion and the latest developments in Pokémon accessory business and coordinating and that kind of girly stuff but this is actually pretty cool."

"Yeah, well, I'm not like that," Leaf said. "I just gotta remember all that if I'm really going to get a job at that SledgeHammer place. Now, are you _sure_ it's like you said? All those professors you mentioned…"

"They're all there," I said reassuringly.

"Yes!" Leaf said and almost squealed in delight before controlling herself. "I… I can't thank you enough, Silver…"

Leaf took my hand and I started feeling weird. Nervous? Nah, must have been something I ate… really. Though, I have to say… I was regretting I had taken my gloves off. Leaf's warm hand around mine felt so nice, and I was just sweating like a pedophile at a playground… especially when I looked Leaf in the eyes and had to constantly tell myself not to look any lower than that.

"Uhm… just… repaying a favor, right?" I said, being my ice-cool self - the heating in Leaf's apartment had to be faulty. "Uhh… hey!"

I moved my hand away from hers because I really had to scratch my nose, and there was definitely no other reason.

"Should we maybe go out somewhere to celebrate our new jobs?" I suggested. "Maybe, uhh… go eating somewhere? Should I cut my hair, maybe?"

Whatever it took to make her happy. Even - and I grimaced at the thought - if it meant letting some weirdo cut off all that blazing red hair of mine.

"Nah, I kinda like it," Leaf said and brushed some of my hair back to see me better. "And well… I guess we can go… of course, that would mean I would have to wear my best dress…"

"Well, if it's too much trouble-"

"Okay, sure, let's go!" she said enthusiastically, clapped her hands and got off the bed frighteningly quickly. "I'm just gonna go change… it's this little black dress I've only worn a few times… though I hope it still fits after all that museum food… but really, it's quite nice, you just have to see it!"

"Little black dress, huh?" I said, cleared my throat and tried to keep myself from starting to jump and up down and praise myself for my awesome luck. "Well, uh… if you must…"

"It'll only be a - OH MY GOD!"

Both me and Leaf were frightened out of our minds when a brick flew in through the window. Leaf's yelling had fortunately covered my somewhat girlish scream, and I quickly pretended that it had not affected me. Leaf got over it just as quickly, as she groaned impatiently.

"Not this again!" she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, because not even the ghettos of Cherrygrove City had bricks flying around.

"It's Timmy," Leaf said. "My… my ex…"

"_Leaf! I'm sorry I had to do that_!" a man outside yelled. "_Come out so we can talk like reasonable adults! Or else I'll totally TP your house!_"

"Just ignore him, he'll go away eventually," Leaf sighed. "It usually only takes about two or three hours. Unless the neighbors start reacting first."

"_I'll tell my birds to fly through the window and open the door from the inside if I have to! Honestly, they can do that! My mom says I'm the best bird keeper in Pewter City_!"

"Timmy, huh?" I said and looked carefully outside, hoping that no more bricks would fly in. "You really put up with this guy? And this happens often?"

"Well, it only has happened about twice a week," Leaf said despondently. "But repairing those windows eats up all my money, so I can't call any of those security firms…"

"Damn!" I uttered - though based on some other psychos I've faced, this Timmy guy seemed relatively harmless. And this time I even had a Pokémon with me. "You know, Leaf, should we do something?"

"I personally think it's best to stay inside when facing wackos who are clearly off their meds," Leaf said. "I like to think that I'm patient, but what that guy did crossed so many lines that he should have been sentenced to the chair twice by now…"

"What?"

"Well, once I realized that beneath that 'nice guy' persona was a horribly possessive/obsessive lunatic with a bird fixation, I kinda wanted to end things. Except somehow, right after I told him, I found strange pills in my food… and after I woke up, my Snubbull was gone and a rather unflattering video of me had been posted to some even more unflattering sites… and, you know, after I got _a little_ pissed off about that… _this _began!"

"_We can work things out_!" Timmy yelled. "_Do you hear me? Come on, let's work things out! I'm a nice guy! Come on, work things out with me or I'll come back with some gasoline!_"

"Okayokayokay!" I cried to keep Leaf from saying anything more. "Holy crap…"

I reached for my Poké Ball. Compared to the guy outside, I felt like I could be nominated Man Of The Year. I opened the ball, and my Sneasel which I 'borrowed' from a guy at Cianwood City popped out and stretched its claws, fit to fight. Leaf's eyes widened.

"Wow, cool, a Sneasel!" she said. "What are you going to do?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, I know you would have dealt with him just as well," I said carefully to avoid any implications, "but after you told me about him… some sort of feeling overpowered me. You know that feeling? When you want to grab a guy and choke him to death with his own insides?"

"Well, not literally," Leaf smiled. "And hey, I guess I can't stop you. Go, and you know… don't be too rough on him. Wink wink."

"Suuuure…."

I opened the door and walked outside, while Leaf rushed to the window - she obviously didn't want to miss the show. I walked towards Timmy, who was a short, rather bony guy wearing overalls and carrying a birdcage with him. He looked confused when he saw a guy leaving Leaf's apartment, and I was savored in the thought of Timmy going berserk and attempting to attack me - that way I could 'accidentally' make Sneasel decapitate him…

"Who the hell are you?" Timmy shouted. "Hey!"

I ignored him and kept walking towards him, my Sneasel walking next to me. Timmy fumbled his birdcage open in panic and took a Poké Ball out, sending a Spearow after me. I could barely keep myself from laughing, and simply pointed at the Spearow. Sneasel caught the drift, lunged at it and attacked with Ice Punch, knocking the Spearow out cold instantly.

"My bird!" he cried. "You'll pay for this!"

"Send me the bill," I deadpanned. "Sneasel, if you would do the honors?"

Sneasel nodded and jumped at Timmy next. Timmy covered his face and screamed in terror, but Sneasel just cut the straps of his overalls, dropping them to his ankles. As more and more people gathered around us, I could literally taste Timmy's embarrassment. He tried charging towards me and attempted to throw a punch. I merely dodged, he tripped into his overalls and fell face down into a puddle of water (and other substances). Some kids on the other side of the street were laughing, and I got the urge to laugh too. Leaf was cheering from the window.

"YEAH!" she yelled. "Go Silver!"

I recalled Sneasel, then calmly walked to Timmy and picked him up from the puddle. Calmly, I wiped his face with a napkin. Timmy's face was bright red and distorted by rage, but he was also shivering all over and likely not in the state of mind to attack me - especially when I held him by his neck.

"Now let's make one thing clear!" I said as loudly as was realistic, just to make sure Leaf heard every word. "You don't harass Leaf Greene anymore. Deal? Go home and play 'early bird catches the worm' with your Spearow or something."

"grrsonofalousygrtz…cking…lousybstrd…"

I couldn't make anything out of Timmy's muttering, especially because he had a lot of mud in his mouth.

"So, will you stop?"

"You motherf-"

"I'll take that as a yes," I interrupted and helped Timmy stand up - I got the sudden urge to make him drown in the puddle, but Leaf probably wouldn't like that, unfortunately enough.

But before I let Timmy go, I had one more thing to say to him. This was something I didn't want Leaf or anyone else to hear, as I would probably be just as humiliated as Timmy was now.

"Why did you have to do that, Timmy?" I wondered. "If things would have been a little different, you and Leaf would probably be the ones having fun in there. But no. You went and lost your chances with… with her… who's probably the nicest, smartest and most beautiful girl I've ever met. How stupid can someone be?"

And then I returned indoors victoriously. Even though there were a million slurs I wanted to yell at Timmy as he ran away, and similarly, a million things to say to praise myself over that fight. But no. Whatever I had to say merely paled in comparison to the way Leaf praised me afterwards. At that moment, I was happier than I had ever been before… and that feeling was merely amplified later on. I'll leave the details of that night to your imagination.

_End of Flashback_

**

* * *

**

Back in present day…

For the remainder of that night, Silver sat alone in his quarters. His Sneasel slept on the bed while his newly evolved Bayleef sat in the corner. Silver threw scraps of food at it without paying much attention to it himself. He had already reported to Kaminko, but none of that that yelling about the missing plates mattered - Silver had already promised to get them back somehow and that would have to do.

Instead, Silver just thought about Leaf. And his father. What the hell had gone wrong with his life?_**  
**_


	8. World In Flames

_**WORLD IN FLAMES**_

**SledgeHammer HQ, Dr. Krane's office  
**_February 19__th__, 2097 8:04 AM_

Sitting in his office and getting ready for today's activities was Dr. Krane. Just in case Kaminko or someone would barge in to do a checkup, he had his papers neatly organized, his books put in alphabetic order and the monitor on his computer screen had been cleaned. However, since he was too tired to start working until after lunch, he started to download a movie, titled '_Lopunny and Tentacruel - A Love Story?_', though he had to make sure to hide it in case anyone turned up.

Suddenly, the phone rang, startling Krane.

"Hello? Dr. Krane of SledgeHammer here."

"_Krane. It's me, Kaminko. Anything new_?"

"Ah, sir, no, nothing at all," Krane said nervously and adjusted his hair before realizing that it wasn't a videophone - not that it would stop Kaminko from looking at him, probably. "I sent Agent Seven to get the plates back. It should be no trouble."

"_We must find them! I know Mr. Adeku will not be satisfied until he knows that the plates are safely locked within our vaults. There is other points of concern I wish to address, though. Has there been any word of Agent Six yet_?"

"Umm… oh, right, Lyra!" Krane said when he struggled to remember. "No, but we are monitoring her around the clock. Should we send anyone there to check up on her?"

"_We'll abide our time for a few more days. Then I'll seek help from the Committee. Speaking of which, I'm going to see them for a meeting this afternoon. Since you seem to be well aware of their activities, Dr. Krane, would you mind joining me in the meeting_?"

"S-sir…" Krane stuttered. "I don't know what you're-"

"_You're free to make your own decisions, Krane, but I wish to remind you that cooperation with them does not ensure your survival. Likewise, refusing to cooperate may not necessarily mean that your career will be, ah… prematurely terminated. There might be a way we can work around that, but I need someone I can trust by my side to the conference. Meet me at my office at two o'clock!_"

"Uh, yes sir! I will, sir! I'm uh, getting back to work, sir! Someone's knocking on my door!"

Krane hung up, and let out an annoyed grunt when he had to get up from his chair and walk all the way to the door. The short, stubby doctor opened his door and was confronted by Kris. Her standard jumpsuit looked awfully dirty, as did her face and her hair, for that matter. Krane looked down on Kris superciliously (though he had to stand on his toes to do so), but nonetheless sighed and let her in.

"Yes, come on in, Zimmerman," he said. "You were my eight o'clock appointment, I see… lie down, then, I suppose."

Krane was _technically_ the staff psychologist (but NOT a psychiatrist, even though Krane liked to claim he was one) - though his real job was of course being Kaminko's personal lapdog. Krane himself preferred the term "executive assistant". As such, he had an uncomfortable couch in the corner of his office. Kris went on her back on the couch, letting her arms hang and keeping her legs partially up, as the couch was apparently kiddy-sized.

Krane pulled a chair next to the couch, yawned and took a notepad and pen from his pocket. He cleared his throat and started in his usual manner:

"So… how are you feeling?" he asked.

Kris moaned.

"If I would feel good, then why the hell would I come to see you?" she said, and Krane rolled his eyes. "And just a question: how many people have actually come here for a session?"

"Well, Blaine was _supposed_ to come, but I just ended up getting some prescription drugs for him," Krane said tiredly, "and I don't think he's even taking them. Oh, and Touko White obviously came here after that little incident a year ago."

"White?" Kris snorted. "She went to see a shrink? Was she all ding-dong-walla-walla-beep-beep in the head or what? Wait, don't answer that…"

"Yes, well, she only had one session," Krane sighed. "She could have been cured entirely, by the way, but it's not like we could force her to come."

"Yeah, she can hit pretty hard…" Kris muttered. "Anyway, the reason I came… you are a shrink, aren't you, Dr. Krane?"

"Well, perhaps not _technically_ a human shrink," Krane admitted, "but I'm as close as you can get without paying a few hundred poké-dollars per hour. Now please, I have more important and _way_ more interesting things to do today, so get on with it."

"Sure…" Kris said. "I needed to come to talk to someone who will keep their mouth shut. I thought that since you shrinks have doctor-patient confidentiality-"

When Kris said that, Krane started laughing to himself, but nonetheless waved his hand, signaling Kris to continue. Kris was feeling a bit more nervous now, but could do nothing but be on the couch and talk. Kris took a deep breath and continued:

"It's just that… I thought joining this group would bring me closer to what I wanted, y'know… it certainly sounded like that when Elm first picked me up. Back then… I didn't have anything else to do, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I was really surprised when I was among the three to be selected as Operatives. I did terrible in my training, I couldn't get anything done… I swear, I'm really a much better trainer than I seem! I just get nervous so easily."

"I would start reminiscing and have a flashback now," Kris continued, "but I don't feel comfortable doing it when there's company. So, I'll just talk about my life, I guess… right? Right, okay. I…"

Kris swallowed and tried to get a grip. A part of her just wanted to open the floodgates and moan about the various things wrong with her life. But what would stop Krane from talking to Kaminko? She had to at least pretend to be strong… and continue:

"It just _hurts_ all the time, you know? I have no idea what I want, I have no one to talk now, especially since Shane just keeps blowing me off. I have experienced nothing but failures after failures ever since I joined. Everyone treats me as a fucking joke! Sorry if my cussing hurt your sensitive little ears, but it's true! When I'm at home, everyone ignores me! When I walk down the street, _everyone_ ignores me. At school… well, there I _hoped_ that everyone would ignore me, because even that would beat what I had to go through. And over here, guess what, _everyone ignores me_!"

"Now I have nothing to care about! This stupid chip in my brain makes me feel like I could drop dead at any minute and yet no one else seems to be bothered! Everyone are so goddamn stupid and obnoxious and ignorant and… GAH! And you know what?"

Kris placed her hands on her chest and yelled:

"I even stuff my bra! It's just tissues you see in there! I used to go with balled up socks but they were kinda obvious… uh, anyway... my boobs really look more like two fried eggs, at least when it comes to size…"

"For crying out loud!" Krane cried and dropped his notepad. "I could have gone on without knowing that, you know! Oh, and what did you say before that?"

"You… weren't listening?" Kris asked. "Well why the hell did you-"

"Kris, if I would have my own practice, I would have earned about a hundred poké-dollars just by listening to that whining. Damn right I didn't listen. Try sorting your problems yourself before you come crying to me. This session is over!"

"But… you can't… I have to…"

"And besides, I have you scheduled for the 9 AM mission," Krane said. "Someone needs to take Professor Juniper to Goldenrod City. They're taping the Barry Williams Show there this afternoon, and she's been invited to talk about our organization. Take Shane with you. He could do something useful for a change! Get out!"

Kris looked absolutely miserable when Krane got up from his chair, walked to the door and opened it for her. Slowly, she got off the couch and looked pathetically at Krane one last time. Krane was unaffected, so Kris walked out of the office and Krane slammed the door shut.

* * *

**Goldenrod City, Broadcast Tower  
**_February 19__th__, 2097 9:30 AM_

Kris and Shane were escorting Dr. Juniper-Araragi (though she insisted on being called just Juniper) across the halls of what was once the Radio Tower. With the help of Team Rocket's brutal efficiency, they combined the TV Tower with it, and now every show that mattered was broadcast there. Even though Giovanni owned the station, not much had changed. Salaries were low, working conditions bad, employees were constantly pressured and treated like cattle and programs had to air propaganda all the time. So, basically, things were just as before, only that there were a bit more "Team Rocket Rules!"_-_posters around.

Kris, Shane and Juniper stepped into the elevator, and Kris constantly looked at Juniper and looked concerned. It's like she had stopped caring completely: Juniper wasn't wearing makeup, her hairdo wasn't as it usually was, she constantly smoked a cigarette and her lab coat was inside out. Somehow, just looking at Juniper gave Kris at least a little boost of confidence.

"She looks a bit dreadful today, doesn't she, Kris?" Shane quipped out loud to pass the time in the elevator.

"_Shane_!" Kris scolded. "She's right there!"

But Juniper ignored the two as she threw a cigarette on the floor, stomped on it and lit another one. Shane and Kris both shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess she does," Kris said. "That's what marriage does to ya, I guess. One moment, you feel like you're on the top of your field, the next moment you reek of gin and everyone pisses you off. And between those moments is basically months, maybe years of uncomfortable silence peppered with occasional arguing."

"Really?" Shane asked.

"Yes, really," Kris said. "You better avoid that crap, Shane. I've done it and look how well things have gone for me!"

"I'm not sure if I should take any lifestyle advice from you, Kris," Shane mumbled.

"Are you implying something?"

"No, no, no!" Shane said, then started thinking. "Wait… yes, actually, I am. It's just that there's difference between 'avoiding it' and 'everyone else avoiding you'… just saying… I mean, maybe if you weren't so grumpy all the time…"

"Shane," Kris said and felt as if she had just went past the limits of her patience, "did it ever occur to you that it's just _the way I am_! And you of all people _should_ know this. What is your deal anyway? I know you're into Black now, but a when we first met a few years ago, you couldn't keep your eyes off my teacher!"

"Well, to use a certain famous football analogy, let's just say that I bat for both teams," Shane said.

"Uh… huh."

"But Black is the one for me," Shane said. "I just know it. I'm currently working a novel that chronicles our relationship in full. It's currently about six hundred pages long."

"You've only had two dates!"

Shane glared at Kris.

"Must you suck the fun out of everything?"

"It's what I do."

"Could you kids shut up, please?" Professor Juniper muttered - Kris and Shane had already forgotten her presence completely. "We've arrived to the top floor."

"I swear, this elevator was even slower than the ones on the Citadel…" Kris mumbled.

Kris, Shane and Juniper were led to another room, where Kris and Shane had to stand by and pretend to be competent bodyguards while Juniper got a new lab coat on to make her look professional. A group of miscellaneous men, woman and Pokémon circled around Juniper, putting makeup on her and working on her hair.

Finally, when the moment came, Kris and Shane watched backstage as the famous talk show host Barry Williams took the stage, rallying up the audience. Williams was a large man with an ego the size of Johto. His face was shiny and probably full of Botox, and the man was described by his makeup artists as a "63-year old trying to look like a 36-year old". The audience didn't seem to mind, though, as they kept chanting mindlessly:

"_Barry! Barry! Barry! Barry!_"

"Thank you, thank you and thank you again for this heartfelt reception!" Williams announced as soon as he was told that he was on the air. "Now, I know you came to see dysfunctions, teen pregnancies, broken marriages and ruined lives, but today, my producers thought we could be serious for a while. What? Oh, sorry, according to the messages I just received, _I_ thought we should be serious for a while."

Williams walked on the stage, holding a microphone in his hand and constantly made sure that the camera followed him. He sat on a couch next to Professor Juniper, who did the best she could to look somewhat lively. The fact that she was really reluctant to do an interview showed all too clearly, but Williams took no notice - the show had to go on.

"We have Professor Toshiko Juniper, the world-renowned scientist and regional professor of Unova, here, in _my_ studio, today. I mean, tonight! This is a live broadcast, totally! So, tell us a little about SledgeHammer, Professor?"

Williams gave Juniper the chance to talk, although he also made sure his face was constantly visible. Juniper cleared her throat and looked around nervously.

"Well," she started while looking at the floor, "as the name implies, we're the sledgehammer that-"

"Ooh, I get it, it's _innuendo_," Williams interrupted. "Nice!"

"Yes, we've never heard that one before," Juniper said monotonously. "Anyway, it's an organization that exists to keep Pokémon in check, ensuring humanity's safety. We are currently in the middle of a very important project, that-"

"Oh, crap," Kris muttered to Shane backstage. "The doc's starting to babble tech! She's losing the audience!"

"I'm glad that's not me in there," Shane whispered.

When Juniper started to veer the subject towards the molecular structure of a Cubone, Barry Williams looked like he was going to fall asleep, so he quickly grabbed a walkie-talkie and whispered:

"Guys, this lady is boring everyone. Go to plan B!"

"…so when concentrated and injected into a Pokémon's circulatory system, an ounce of kaminkomium can guarantee extremely high potency, thus when the progress is reversed, we have found a way to control the Pokémon populace through methods such as-"

"Yes, yes, that is wonderful, Miss Juniper," Williams said and put on a wide, fake grin, showing his gold tooth, "but can I interrupt? Well, it's my show, so of course I can! Hah! So, Toshiko… I can call you that? Well, what am I saying? Of course I-"

"I hope you have a good reason for interrupting me, Barry," Juniper said.

"It's Mr. Williams!" Williams snapped and glared at Juniper murderously, but soon put on his fake, cheerful face again so no one in the audience noticed. "I was going to ask you about your recent divorce… I have here, in the studio, Mr. Araragi, your ex-husband, plus your two lovely children, Mio and Mayu!"

Juniper almost fell off the couch as she turned around rapidly. Pushing Kris and Shane aside as they walked to the stage, Juniper's husband and his two daughters rushed to the stage, though the kids obviously were more interested in getting the hell out. Mr. Araragi had to drag them on the sofas.

"Miss Juniper," William said, "I believe Mr. Araragi has something to say to you."

"_What the hell is this_?" Juniper shrieked and got off the couch when her ex-husband attempted to sit next to her. "Why did you bring them here? What is-"

"The kids were devastated when you left, Toshiko!" Mr. Araragi yelled melodramatically. "We're now so poor that we had to eat Mio's pet Chatot… she cherished it so much!"

"Then get a job!" Juniper yelled. "Barry Williams, you promised me that this as an informative talk show!"

"I say a lot of things," Barry Williams said arrogantly. "Tell me more about your home life, Mr. Araragi!"

"It's dreadful," Mr. Araragi whined. "After she left, Toshiko took everything from me. I have been forced to take care of the girls, so I had to leave my job-"

"First of all, you were fired!" Juniper yelled. "Second of all, Mio is thirteen and Mayu is _fifteen_ for heaven's sake! I think they can manage a few hours by themselves! And what do you with all the money I-"

But Juniper's yelling was overshadowed by the booing in the audience. Moreover, the director kept insisting to get more shots of the "troubled, suffering 'children'", who mostly looked just irritated to be there. Then Mr. Araragi started crying (though Juniper couldn't see any actual tears) and Barry Williams was ready to die from pleasure.

"Toshiko, how could you cheat on me?" Mr. Araragi howled. "I found the picture of you and that Chinese man!"

"It was taken before we even met!" Juniper screamed. "And where did you even get that picture?"

"_BOOOOOOOO! Down with Juniper!_"

"_She's a horrible mother! Sacrifice her to Arceus!_"

"_I'm only yelling to be noticed!_"

The audience kept yelling, Mr. Araragi kept crying, the kids yawned and Barry Williams kept riling up the crowd, then did a little impromptu dance number, most likely thinking about the ratings that would surely increase after this scandal. When Williams, the audience and Mr. Araragi kept bombarding her with more, increasable absurd question and she was repeatedly booed at, something snapped inside Juniper's head.

She fell on her knees right in the middle of the stage and started screaming at the top of her lungs. Barry Williams only got more excited, and Juniper's kids got nervous at the sight of their mother having a complete nervous breakdown. Kris and Shane rushed to the stage, but while Kris started dragging Araragi away by her collar, Shane crept to Barry Williams.

"Yo, any chance I could get on the show?" he asked.

"Shane, come on!"

* * *

**SledgeHammer HQ  
**_February 19th, 2097 2:04 PM_

Professor Kaminko and Dr. Krane had met in Kaminko's office, and now were walking towards a place which Kaminko called 'the holographic projection room', a featureless room with completely black walls, where a simple desk and a chair awaited Kaminko in the middle. Dr. Krane was confused, but Kaminko merely signaled him to stay still and stand next to his desk as Kaminko himself sat down.

Then the door was closed behind them, and the room turned completely dark.

And, with the click of a button, Kaminko and Krane suddenly found themselves in a completely different place, like in a dark conference room of some sorts. Twelve desks formed a circle around Kaminko and Krane, and behind each desk was a Committee representative. Or rather, a projection of a representative. This certainly saved travel expenses. The voices of the Committee members seemed to echo from loudspeakers placed around the room, but the darkness kept Krane from seeing the faces of any of the members.

"_Welcome, professor. We weren't expecting you to bring your lap dog with you_."

"In case I happen to be absent, Dr. Krane will fill in for me," Kaminko explained, "I thought I'd show him how the system works. Is there a problem?"

"_Several, but we will discuss them later._"

"Very well," Kaminko said. "I'd just like to add that it is an honor to meet the prestigious representatives again. It has been a while, and there have been certain developments."

"_It's that what you call your recent failures, professor_?_ First of all, you lost the plates of origin_! _We assumed you would be doing your best to retrieve them_."

"_We also expressed our concern over the Canalave issue. It has been five days already, yet we have received no kind of reports whatsoever. What is your agent doing there_?"

"Was that all?" Kaminko asked in a mocking tone. "This committee can sleep safely, I'm sure. Our agents are professionals, and not only is one of them working feverishly to retrieve the plates, our other agent is not far from deciphering the Canalave issue."

Dr. Krane stood quietly, and had no idea what anyone was talking about.

"_We should hope so, professor. We have only recovered thirty percent of the Braille so far. The schedule is tight_."

"_But we have faith in you, professor. We strongly suggest you nonetheless move the process forward. Remember that the seed of Darkrai can only be carried by one of the Operatives. We assume that you know which one you're going to use_?"

"Yes I do," Kaminko said. "Can I get back to work now?"

"_This meeting is adjourned_."

The holographic projections of all of the Committee members disappeared, and at the very same time, the door of the 'holodeck' opened to let some light in. Krane just stood still and stared at Kaminko, expecting to get some answers.

"Still here?" Kaminko wondered when he looked up at Krane. "Don't you have work to do?"

"Um, I… yes, sir!"


	9. What's Done Is Done

_**WHAT'S DONE IS DONE**_

Kicking in a wooden door, Kris stepped into a house. She knew that this was the one - the one where she had sent to take out notorious crime boss Tac Psit. Right now, she was in a darkened room, but could hear the sound of wings flapping nearby. She wasn't alone.

Quickly, she opened the lone Poké Ball attached to her waist and opened it. Her Totodile, Croc, came out, and immediately started running and jumping around the room.

"Shh!"

Kris managed to get Croc to stop, but it was too late. She had been noticed, and all the lights in the room came on. Kris was briefly blinded.

After blinking for a bit and starting to see again, Kris noticed that the room was full of bird Pokémon sitting on chairs, support beams, everywhere, flapping their wings and snapping their beaks menacingly. There were Pidgey, Spearow, Pidgeotto, Swellow, Staravia, Murkrow and a few Farfetch'd, all kinds, all glaring at Kris. Croc snapped its jaw at them, but there was no reaction.

"Welcome!"

Kris was startled by this sudden voice - it sounded human, but it was much scratchier, more high-pitched than normal. It came from the other end of the room, and Kris couldn't see that far.

"Uh… hi!" Kris shouted and looked nervously at the bird Pokémon around her. "Are you… Tac Psit?"

"Bravo!" the voice said. "It was about time someone located me. I guess that means that you can see my face… bring her to me!"

Kris wondered who the voice was talking to, then heard the sound of a door slamming shut behind her. It was closed by a Dodrio, the humongous, bipedal, three-headed bird that could easily impale Kris with any of its sharp beaks. Kris and Croc started obediently walking towards the end of the room, and the birds glared at them all the way. The Dodrio walked behind them, and slowly but surely Kris was about to see who the mysterious Tac Psit was.

The ringleader of the notorious Pokémon smuggling enterprise was in Kris' plain sight, sitting on an armchair. It was neither a woman or a man, like Kris had expected.

It was a small, bird-type Pokémon, resembling a parakeet. It had blue wings, a green belly, a pink beak, a black head shaped like an eighth note and a black tail that looked like a metronome. Kris immediately whipped out her Pokétch to scan the critter.

"_Chatot, the Music Note Pokémon. It can mimic the cries of other Pokémon, and thanks to its human-shaped tongue, it can learn and even speak human words._"

Kris just stared at the Chatot, and the Chatot stared back intently, looking like it was squinting. Somehow, Kris expected the actual Tac Psit to suddenly appear from some hideout and yell 'Gotcha!', but no such thing happened. This bird was the feared criminal?

"…huh," Kris mumbled, unable to express her thoughts otherwise.

"Looks can be deceiving," the Chatot said, sounding eerily like any human, though its voice had an androgynous quality to it - it was impossible to tell its gender. "But now that you're here-"

"Oh, please!" Kris interrupted. "This has got to be the lowest point of my existence! I'm being given the supervillain lecture by a damn _parrot_? I can't even take you seriously! What, are you going to do the whole 'My plan to destroy the world is as follows', shtick or what?"

"Nnnnnoo, I have no such intentions," the Chatot said lazily.

First, the Chatot jumped on the armrest of the chair, then flew on Kris' shoulder. Kris winced a bit, feeling the Chatot's sharp claws burrowing into her skin. Totodile growled at the Chatot, but couldn't do anything else. Chatot snapped its beak at Kris and started talking into her hear:

"You see, miss ENO agent, I prefer to keep things the way they are," the Chatot whispered, "and things are thusly: you're the only one who knows that I'm a Pokémon. My businesses are built on fear and uncertainty of you humans, kind of like that fellow Giovanni, the Rocket Boss."

"People don't say 'thusly' enough these days," Kris said and yawned.

"Yes, that's it, spend your last minutes saying…"

Chatot paused to think of something elaborate to say - apparently it hadn't gotten around building its vocabulary too much - it did sound like it had gotten its mannerisms from Saturday morning cartoons.

"…saying stupid things," Chatot finished, accompanied by its minions squawking on the background. "Because you won't be leaving this house alive."

"That so?" Kris asked. "I beg to differ."

Chatot flew away from Kris, leaving a deep cut on her shoulder. It flew back on its chair and looked at Kris with contempt, or so Kris assumed.

"There's probably twenty-five of us," Chatot said. "There's two of you. You do the math."

"Yeah, you might wanna call some reinforcements before we begin," Kris said.

Kris had kept her arms crossed all this time. She wouldn't let Chatot or the dozens of murderous birds around her affect her. Not at all. She needed to succeed in this, not for the sake of the mission, but for her own sake. The Dodrio behind her was going to be a problem…

"Sorry it had come down to this," Chatot squawked. "Any last words?"

"Mm, a few," Kris said. "How about… ICE BEAM!"

While saying this, Kris took a dive on the floor, dodging Dodrio's Drill Peck attack. At the exact same time Croc, whom she never would have thought would listen to her, launched an Ice Beam towards Dodrio, freezing it solid in an instant.

Then Chatot started squawking and making ungodly, screeching noises. It sounded nothing like a human anymore, but the bird Pokémon around the house understood. They started to fly towards Kris and Croc, but Kris had her own Pokétch ready. And this time, it worked.

In rapid succession, both Kris and her Totodile launched Ice Beams towards the attacking bird Pokémon. One by one, the little birds became encased in blocks of ice, crashing on the floor. Kris and Croc attacked without mercy, freezing their wings, beaks and claws. Briefly, Kris felt a Spearow's neck close to her, but Croc jumped at it, grabbing the bird with its mouth.

"_Kill her_!" Chatot screamed, circling around the fighters.

It was hard to hear over the constant screeching, wing flapping and ice shattering, but at that very moment, the only window in the house was shattered as a Fearow flew in. All the smaller bird Pokémon fled in terror as the Fearow landed on the floor. All it needed to do was flap its mighty wings to knock Croc off its feet and pin Kris on the floor. Kris was now trapped underneath the huge bird, with the sharp, long beak only inches away from her face… how Freudian.

But what to do in that situation? Break down and start sobbing and crying for help. Oh, no. Kris wasn't going to do that. She had her Pokétch and her spirit, and that was all that was needed. Croc was lying on its back a few feet away from her.

"Croc!" Kris yelled at her Totodile, ignoring the Fearow. "Are you okay?"

Much to Kris' delight, Croc was soon back on its feet. It was disoriented, but determined. Kris was really beginning to understand what Elm had meant with that 'bonding to Pokémon' stuff.

"So, what now?" Kris asked Chatot, that was still flying in mid-air, staring down at Kris. "Oh, and you!" she told the Fearow keeping her on the floor. "Your breath stinks! Do you realize how much scraps you must have stored there in your beak?"

"Choose your next witticism carefully," Chatot said, "it may be your last!"

"Oh, come on, you've _got_ to do better than that!" Kris said. "Croc, hold it together, buddy! Come on! You can do it!"

Croc was about to rush towards Fearow, but Chatot flew above the Totodile and kept it away with its strong claws. Nonetheless, Croc struggled against Chatot, fiercely attempting to help its master.

"_Do it already_!" Chatot screeched at the Fearow. "Stab her!"

Fearow pulled its head backwards, ready to strike… but Kris wriggled her leg free from the Fearow's grip and kicked the bird right in the chest. Fearow was tossed a few feet backwards, so Kris stood up and assumed a combat stance with her Pokétch at the ready. At the exact same time, Croc broke free from Chatot's grip and started glowing.

It took only a split-second, but Kris, Chatot and the Fearow all paused to look at what happened to the Totodile. It grew bigger, grew more teeth and received three clusters of spikes on top of its head. It looked fiercer than before and had sharp claws in addition to its teeth. It was now a Croconaw.

The Fearow hadn't yet recovered from the shock when Kris' new Croconaw lunged towards it and wrestled it to the ground. When Kris' and Croc's eyes met, they both nodded, and Croconaw jumped a bit backwards. As if on cue, both Kris and Croconaw fired a simultaneous Ice Beam towards the Fearow, trapping it into a huge block of ice.

At that moment, Chatot tried to fly away, but Croconaw grabbed it by its tail feathers and slammed it on the ground, holding it by the throat so it couldn't bite. Kris knelt so she would be face to face with Chatot, but it still felt incredibly weird, threatening a puny little parakeet like that.

"Now, then," Kris told the Pokémon struggling in Croconaw's grip. "I believe we were having a conversation before you tried to kill us and all? Should we pick up where we left off, or do you want Croc to test how much your neck can be squeezed before it snaps…"

"_I'll talk_!" Chatot squeaked pathetically. "Please… I'm just a harmless little bird…"

Kris shook her head.

"What is the matter with you?" she asked. "I was really expecting more of Tac Psit, but whatever…"

"Yeah, yeah… what do you want to know?"

"My commanding officer's don't seem to think that it's a big deal, but I'm worried out of my mind," Kris said. "Where is Lyra Soul? Agent Six, I mean. She was last seen in Sinnoh. She's this pushy, brown-eyed brunette. Overalls, red shirt, dorky hat, kind of a jerk-"

"Yeah, yeah, I think I know who you mean!" Chatot interrupted and writhed around, not due to pain, but embarrassment. "Just stop… describing her. I heard talking. This group of humans who have allied with a group of Pokémon around Newmoon Island, Fullmoon Island and Canalave City. Real Poké-lovers and all that! A female human, one of you guys, was captured by them not too long ago. That's all I know, I swear!"

Kris stood up, but Croconaw didn't let go of Chatot just yet. Without realizing it herself, Kris started twirling her hair and chewing on it. She had to make a decision: she would be showered with praise and definitely could one-up Lyra, Silver and those others if she bought Chatot to base. But how could she prove that the bird was Tac Psit? It could easily refuse to talk… then again, they were working on some Pokémon-Human translator gizmo there anyhow, right?

No. She couldn't do it. Not only could Kris see potential use in an informant like Chatot, she also knew the procedures that would follow if Kris would bring it to base. Blaine in particular would question the parakeet for hours. And that would delay Lyra's rescue op…

"Could you stop doing that, please?" Chatot pleaded when Kris was still biting her hair. "That's disgusting."

"Sorry. Pthoo!"

Kris spat the excess hair from her mouth.

"Yuch, you probably have a point," she lamented. "Anyway, I have decided. I'm going to let you go soon."

"Mighty generous of you," Chatot said, "not to mention mighty stupid."

"I'm just a lil' softie like that, yeah," Kris said, her voice heavy with sarcasm. "But I have more important things to do right now. But in exchange for that, I need information every once in a while. You're going to be my Pokémon contact."

"Hah! And what if I refuse?"

"Well, I'll just tell every living soul that you're the feared Tac Psit," Kris said nonchalantly. "And I _will _find you when I need to. The good thing about a PokéDex built into this thing," Kris tapped her Pokétch, "is that now that I have seen you, this automatically records your whereabouts. You can run, but you can't hide. So let's just make this easier for the both of us."

"…yeah, whatever," Chatot said. "Just let me go now, okay?"

"One more thing," Kris said. "This has been bugging me for quite a while now… Kaminko and all those other schmucks in charge of ENO are dead sure that Pokémon are planning an insurrection or something like that… that there will be another war. And this Darkrai incident just seems to prove it. Is that really what's going on?"

Chatot stopped writhing in Croconaw's grip and gave Kris a sheepish look.

"Yes," it replied coldly. "I myself am largely unconcerned, but there have been talks. Some of us feel that _we_ could be the ones on the top, just like we were thousands of years ago. And some of us won't stop before they see humans extinct. Sorry, luv."

"But… it's just so complicated," Kris said. "Man, this is like mysteries upon mysteries making baby mysteries, who have incestuous relations with the other mysteries and produce horribly deformed little mysteries that mutate into-"

"Yeah, it's complicated, I know," Chatot said. "Now tell your gator to stop pressing on my throat. I need that for karaoke!"

"Croc, let the bird go!"

Croconaw reluctantly moved away from Chatot. The parakeet started coughing a bit, gave one last glance to Kris, then flew away from the open window.

Kris turned to look at Croc. She couldn't help but to feel pride at Croc's newfound evolution and her first victory in a while.

"Well, let's go," she told the Croconaw. "No time to lose. We'll just stop by at the base, then we're heading to the heart of Canalave. Time to pay that Darkrai a visit."

* * *

**A/N: _I did these notes to apologize for the shortness of this chapter and my long delay. So... sorry. I promise more frequent updates from now on. I am working on my Mass Effect fic plus a huge amount of work-related things right now, so I'm sorry. Also, I'm using these author's notes to tell that this series will have three more parts, and they will be as follows:_**

**_The next story will be called 'Just Say The Word' and will probably be about 18 chapters long or so. The one after that will be titled 'Apo Mekhanes Theos'. Finally, the fifth one will break the formula, and will be long, epic and bring this thing to a conclusion. I have noticed that I have dropped some of the 'humor' (if you can call it that) from my earlier stories and this is more 'serious' than the others, so I apologize for the Cerebus Syndrome as well. Things are going to be like that for quite a while, though I will try to improve the 'drama'. Also, the last story will bring back some of the silliness from the earlier fics. If anyone cares, that is._**

**_That is all. Chapter 10 should probably be here shortly. Thanks for your patience, readers... if there are any at this point._**


	10. Darkrai

_**DARKRAI**_

**SledgeHammer HQ  
**_February 20__th__, 11 AM_

The Monitoring Room, or as the more nerdy members of the group called it, the "bridge", was crowded. Ein and Celio had assumed their positions at the monitors, while Touko White, Leaf Greene, Blaine and professor Elm had gathered around them and were talking loudly. They all fell silent, however, when the doors opened and Kris rushed in, panting and clutching her chest. She attempted to talk to the others, but all she could say sounded something like this:

"…hhh… hnng… Lyra… must… hhh…"

Touko, Leaf and Blaine rolled their eyes, but Elm was slightly more understanding. He walked to Kris and gave her support so she wouldn't collapse - understandable, as she had ran all the way to the laboratory right after arriving to base.

"Where have you been?" Blaine yelled. "And how can we know that there aren't a platoon of feds right behind you now? Come on, feds! We know you're there! This is just a plain ordinary place of business and not a super-secret base!"

"…relax, Blaine… hhh…" Kris said, still breathing heavily. "I was… working… trying to find Tac Psit…"

"Well did you?" Touko asked scathingly.

"…doesn't matter!" Kris panted. "This is important! I know where Lyra is! Open a communications line with Kaminko!"

"_Professor_ Kaminko, Kris," Elm corrected.

"Shut up and do it!" Kris yelled and pushed Elm away, not wanting Touko to think that she needed to be held upright.

"Well, you might as well do it," Touko said to Celio over her shoulder. "So the boss can tell her off himself. It's not like he's busy trying to run things or anything, he always has times for one more crazy, ranting chick."

Celio shrugged and lazily pressed a button on the dashboard in front of him. A beeping noise was heard from the loudspeakers all around the laboratory, and Kris turned her around wildly, wondering if Kaminko could hear her.

"Uh… hello, professor, sir, guy," Kris said uncertainly. "This is agent five, uh… Kris. Heh, forgot my own name there… uh, anyway, um… I have reason to believe that Lyra is being held captive somewhere near Canalave. If that is so, then we should go and… you know, help her and stuff. And ignore the whole fog. This came from a very reliable source."

There was only silence next, as everyone in the lab waited for Kaminko to say something. Finally, the group heard Kaminko's breathing over the intercom, then he started talking.

"_Are you one hundred percent certain, agent five?_"Kaminko asked, his deep voice almost hurting the ears of everyone in the lab. "_We may not have enough data about Darkrai yet…_"

"Oh screw that!" Kris snapped, then came to her senses. "I mean, yes, I am, sir… please," she added, "if you can't spare anyone else… let me go alone!"

"_No, no, you might be right,_" Kaminko said. "_We need to make the first move. I have reasons to believe that Team Plasma is involved, anyway…_"

"They are?" Elm wondered. "Sir, you didn't tell me-"

"_Attention security and science personnel_," Kaminko interrupted, "_Assume battle stations and prepare to defend the base. I will be attending a conference, so Dr. Krane will assume control of the base. Extranormal operatives, report to the debriefing room immediately_. _Dr. Greene, you join them as well._"

"Finally, some action!" Touko grinned as she, Kris and Leaf left the room.

* * *

Meanwhile, on a different part of the base, Shane used his keycard to open one of the base's emergency exits. He had heard the announcement, and he had limited time left, but this was important. Making sure no one was around to hear him and that the surveillance camera wouldn't spot him, Shane opened the door.

Cheren Black stormed inside the moment the door was opened, then put his fingers on Shane's lips.

"Keep quiet," Cheren said. "Thanks for doing this, Shane. You know me, I like to be straightforward, but I heard there was a little ruckus going on, and I didn't want to bother professor Kaminko…"

"Yeah, whatever, I guess," Shane whispered nervously. "I just… I'm so glad to be of assistance…"

"What's going on in in here?" Cheren wondered.

The two started walking away from the exit, towards the elevators. Shane glanced at the surveillance camera nervously before replying. Surely it was okay for him to bring Black into the base, right? Blaine couldn't get his panties in a knot for this simple, only slightly appalling breach of security, right? Right?

"Uh… I don't have a clue," Shane admitted, "I was on an important assignment in the kitchen, counting the cracks on the water pipes. Then suddenly, Kaminko's voice started echoing all over! I guess I'm supposed to go to the debriefing room, though I don't think I remember where it is anymore… I nearly soiled the new pants you bought me! Speaking of which, when are we going to-"

"I wouldn't keep the others waiting, Shane," Cheren said and put his hand on Shane's shoulder, instantly silencing him. "You obviously have important agent-y things to do, and I have some… business here as well. You go now."

"Oh, sure, whatever you say…"

After deciding to never wash the spot where Cheren had touched him, Shane entered the elevator while Cheren snuck somewhere else.

Shane was the last person to enter the debriefing room. Kris, Leaf, Touko and Touya were there already, but to Shane's surprise, Touko didn't start screaming at him for being late, simply waved at him to enter the room.

"Close the door," Touko said enthusiastically, practically smiling as she turned on the projector.

Shane sat on a chair next to the stoic Touya, who constantly kept his eyes on Touko, keeping his arms crossed. His face was blank, and he didn't acknowledge Shane's presence in any way. Shane had practically gotten used to this brown-haired but relatively good-looking creep strolling around the corridors by now, so he wasn't too weirded out.

"Hang on a second, White!" Leaf said and kept looking at the door, as if expecting someone else to come. "Silver isn't here…"

"He's trying to get back the plates of origin," Touko explained, "which is only fair, considering that he was stupid enough to lose them!"

"Oh…" Leaf muttered. "I just… well… good! Yeah, I didn't want him here anyway!"

"Shush!" Touko snapped.

The others had never seen Touko White this giddy with anticipation, practically swinging back and forth on her heels and grinning as she looked at the others, particularly Touya, who she smiled at every once in a while. The others tried to figure out where this strange cheerfulness had come from.

"Even a broken calendar is right at least once a week, it seems," Touko said in attempt to sound smart, "and Kris hit the thumb with a hammer. Lyra was captured by Team Plasma. _Was_ captured. Though one of our Porygon-operated satellites, we were finally able to communicate with her. The message was brief, but… it told all we needed to know. Here."

Touko pushed a button on the remote she was holding, and a taped recording started to play. At first, they just heard heavy, pained breathing, then a woman's voice:

"_Hello? Hello? HQ, can you hear me? This is Lyra! The hell with codenames and all that now! Is anyone there? I have been held prisoner in one of Team Plasma's yachts, but I managed to escape. I have reached Canalave City! I can't see much, but it's here. I know it. I can feel it! It's freezing out here, something is blocking out the sun… the streets are empty… as far as I can tell… but I hear this screeching noise all the time! I need help! Forget about the fog! I need reinforcements now! NOW! I-"_

The recording ended abruptly, and Touko hit pause on the remote. Kris squeezed the armrests of her chair.

"Darkrai," she said.

"Or something like that, yeah," Touko said and still kept smiling. "Isn't this great, though? Finally we can bring in the big guns. Now, I'm in charge of this operation from now on, and I ain't going to see this screwed up like the last one! Kris, Shane, do I make myself clear?"

"Shouldn't you be asking that from yourself?" Kris wondered.

"Shut up! Anyway, this time, you'll go in there armed, and you know, with plenty of warm clothes. According to Kris, her Totodile has evolved into a Croconaw, which will help you fight against it. Basically, I want Kris and Shane as the ground team. There's an ideal location to fight the thing from the Canalave Library. Kris will fight from the first floor, Shawn from the second. Keep Darkrai distracted!"

"So you're positive that it's there?" Leaf asked.

"As positive as… yeah!" Touko said. "You know, let them nerds at the lab deal with it. Present company not excluded."

Leaf rolled her eyes, but Touko was unaffected and kept on talking.

"Or, you know, if it ain't Darkrai, it's just a suspiciously similar blob of dark… stuff," Touko clarified. "Kris, Shale and hopefully Lyra, if her brains haven't imploded yet, will keep the Darkrai busy, while Touya will take Leaf to Fullmoon Island."

"Why?" Shane asked. "There's no time for sightseeing!"

"Because," Leaf explained patiently and clearly, as if talking to a five-year old, "the only thing that can destroy Darkrai for sure is a Pokémon that lives there. It's called Cres-se-li-a. Professor Elm already explained Get it now?"

"Uh… possi…proba…prossibly!" Shane said.

"Question," Kris said and raised her hand, "wasn't that exactly what Lyra tried to do before, you know, this whole chain of events happened?"

"Nice try," Touko scoffed and still kept smiling, "but if you'd know anything about… anything, then you'd be aware that Fullmoon is back on the monitors. Thus, we're going to assume that Team Plasma did something to disturb our satellites. In thou face, suckah!"

"Wow, Kris, she totally burned you!" Shane laughed.

"You're in an awful good mood today, lieutenant," Kris said, with her arms crossed and her eyebrows raised. "Any particular reason?"

"Oh, you know, some days are better than others," Touko said and smiled even wider, then made eye contact with Touya.

Touya simply nodded in response, but his face showed no emotion whatsoever. Shane was confused, Kris was annoyed and Leaf's eyes widened suddenly.

"Hold on…" Leaf said, turned to look at Touya, then turned back to Touko again. "White… have you…"

"So, that's enough of that!" Touko said and clapped her hands to drown out Leaf's voice. "Satisfied with the plan? Of course you are! Since we don't really have time to book a flight, you'll be instead traveling using the latest piece of high-end technology!"

"Not a boat and a paddle, I hope?" Kris asked.

Touko sighed, and grabbed the innocuous-looking Poké Ball that had been sitting on the desk next to her for quite some time. She briefly looked at the Poké Ball in disgust, then opened it. An Abra materialized on the floor, making no noise and keeping its eyes closed, most likely sleeping, as always.

"This is one of professor Juniper's test subjects," Touko explained, "and it's been pushing to the limit recently-"

"Yes, clearly," Kris said, certain that she could hear the Abra snoring.

"Stop ruining this for me!" Touko said, shaking her fist at Kris. "Well, anyway," she continued casually, "Juniper's been doing her stuff to its brain, and if her maths is correct, then it should teleport you guys to Canalave. Or near enough. So go grab your winter jackets!"

"It it safe?" Shane asked in a suddenly high-pitched voice while staring at the Abra.

"There's always the chance that some bit parts are left back in here when you teleport," Touko admitted. "A button, your shoelaces, an eyelash, your head, et cetera. But considering what you're going against, the teleportation will be the safest thing you'll do."

Though all four kept their normal clothes underneath, Kris, Shane and Leaf put heavy winter jackets on them, plus Shane also decided to wear four additional layers of underwear. Kris' jacket was blue, Shane's was orange and Leaf's was green. Apparently, they couldn't afford decent camouflage jackets. When going up against Darkrai, it probably didn't matter either way.

As Kris, Shane, Leaf and Touya held hands while simultaneously touching the Abra, Kris gave Touya a puzzled look.

"Hey," she said, "aren't you going to wear anything thicker than that hoodie of yours?"

"I don't see the need for that," Touya stated monotonously, "it might hamper my mobility, and the bright colors make me an easy target for the enemy. But thank you for your concern."

Touya then turned back to staring into nothingness after this surprisingly polite statement, while Kris stared at the guy with her mouth open.

"Hey, he is manlier than any one of you hacks!" Touko said and stroked Touya's hair briefly before assuming her 'competent leader'-role again. "All right, time to go! One last minute tip, though: don't get killed!"

"Wait!" Shane yelled. "I gotta write it down! What was it again?"

"I've got a bad feeling about this…" Leaf muttered, her face mostly covered by the large hood of her oversized jacket.

"What do you mean?" Kris wondered. "It's awesome! All right, Abra! Energize!"

The Abra didn't move or make any kind of gesture.

"Uh, I mean, teleport!"

For a split-second, it looked as if Abra's ear moved a bit. Then, a purplish glow appeared around it, and soon all five began to glow while Touko took a few steps backwards. Then, a bright flash of light…

…and they were gone.

"Wow…" Touko muttered to herself, looking at the empty spot on the floor. "I can't believe it actually worked… that Juniper really knows her stuff… wait, why the hell am I talking to myself?"

Touko shrugged and was prepared to exit the room, but was almost knocked on her back when the door was quickly slammed open. Silver rushed into the room, sweating profusely, breathing heavily and with his shirt and hands covered in blood.

"Silver?" Touko shrieked. "The fu-"

"No time!" Silver grunted and gasped for air. "Where's Leaf?"

"Just left," Touko said and looked at Silver's red palms. "Silver, what the hell happened to you? You'll get all the gizmos soaked in blood. Go see the medic or somethin'!"

"It's not mine," Silver said anxiously.

Touko retreated a bit. Silver's hair was partially covering his eyes, and the blood had tangled it as well. He was also dirty all over, and there were several bruises on his face.

"Did this happen while-"

"Not now!" Silver roared. "What about Juniper then?"

"I don't know where she is, she didn't come to work today," Touko said and crossed her arms, "and you do realize that you're talking to a superior officer?"

"No…" Silver said and swept the hair off his face, slowly reverting to his normal self. "It did not enter my mind at any point. "I didn't find the plates yet, but I have some new info… aren't there any science team members left?"

"Well, Dr. Nilsson might be-"

"No, he's not," Silver interrupted.

"Uh… how do you know?"

"Trust me. He ain't here anymore."

"Ooohkay, then," Touko said. "Well, as I said, your precious little Leaf just left on a mission. Important one, which you just happened to miss. We can't get you there anymore, so go back looking for the plates or do something useful."

"Who did she go with?" Silver asked.

"Oh, those guys… Kris… Whatshisname, the blonde guy… oh, and also… Touya," Touko finished, sighing dreamily and rather uncharacteristically. She kept rubbing her index finger and thumb together, having touched Touya's hair with them.

"Touya…" Silver said. "That's who I wanted to tell you about to."

"Ain't he great?" Touko smiled.

"Sure," Silver said, "but there's something else you ought to know about him…"

* * *

**Canalave City, Sinnoh**

Kris, Shane, Leaf and Touya had left a homing device near the Abra so they would find it in case the fog still wouldn't subside. Now, they were in Canalave City, using Leaf's electronic map to search the library. Kris' Croconaw and Shane's Sandshrew were also walking besides their trainers.

The place was just as Lyra had described it. You could see the blurry outlines of houses in the distance, but the whole place seemed to have effectively turned into a ghost town. It was absolutely silent, and all the group could hear was their own footsteps. They all had chills down their spine, and were sure it wasn't caused by the temperature…

After the group had walked for a good long while, Leaf's electronic map started beeping.

"Ah, I think we have arrived!" she announced. "It's the library!"

"Where?" Shane wondered and kept on walking while the others stopped.

As an answer to his question, Shane crashed into the library's door, bumping his head on it.

"Ow!"

"There," Leaf said.

While Shane started cussing to himself and Shrew tried its best not to start giggling, Leaf fumbled with her electronic map.

"Hmm… so the docks can't be far away," Leaf muttered. "Okay, Kris, me and Touya will try to find a boat. We'll use the Abra if we can't find one, though I'd prefer not to teleport anymore, not until after my guts are back in place. You and… him, stay here."

"Roger that," Kris said. "You going to be okay?"

"Based on what I've been told about Touya," Leaf said and glimpsed at the quiet, brown-haired guy, "definitely. He's pretty good with those Pokétch powers. Especially when you consider that you never see him with a Pokémon… well, bye."

Leaf and Touya didn't have to walk far, as they had soon faded from sight due to the fog. But it was constantly getting thinner, and around the library, it seemed to be fading slowly. Shane walked to the door again, as it was now visible. He tried to open it… but couldn't.

"It's locked…" Shane said. "Aw, budge! Well, look like we should be heading back now!"

"Stand back," Kris ordered, and Shane obediently ran behind Kris. "Croc, kick in that door!"

"Not so fast!"

Kris and Shane looked at each other, then started to shake their heads around wildly. The voice was deep, scratchy, menacing and seemed to come from above. They looked up… and saw that fog had nearly disappeared from around the library. Someone was at the roof.

There were about six people standing on the rooftop, four of them in strange uniforms, looking almost like medieval knights, though with fittingly gender-neutral costumes, so one couldn't tell the dames from the dudes. The insignia was obvious - Team Plasma grunts. One person in particular stood out: he was wearing large, decorative robes, had long, platinum-blonde hair and was generally a massive man, probably between the ages of 50 and 60. Incidentally, Kris and Shane remembered him as a preacher from a bar in Unova - Goetis. He grinned as he looked down on Kris and Shane, and both parties were completely silent for a moment.

Standing next to Goetis was his Zoroark, and the Zoroark also kept someone in its claws - a badly malnourished and tired Lyra, who weakly raised her head a bit to see Kris and Shane.

"You!" Lyra shouted, her voice sounding hoarse. "No… why did you come? You gotta leave! Quick!"

"Please, calm down, girl, there's no need to worry," Goetis assured. "You two!" he yelled at Kris and Shane. "Stand still while we negotiate. There's no need for bloodshed!"

"I remember you!" Shane yelled suddenly, stating out loud what Kris had already figured out. "The guy from the bar… Gee… Gat… Ghost?"

"Some call me Ghetsis, some call me Goetis," Goetis said. "But that is unimportant. The point is, your friends will be sorely disappointed when they reach Fullmoon Island!"

To demonstrate his point, Goetis snapped his fingers, and the four Plasma Grunts pulled something on a leash, drawing it closer to the edge of the roof so Kris and Shane could see it. It was Cresselia: the glowing, crescent-shaped legendary, shackled by the Plasma Grunts and somehow kept from destroying them all with a single Psychic.

"Oh, crud," Kris groaned at the sight of Cresselia. "Okay, Goetis!" she shouted so the man could hear her. "You've made your point! Now would you mind sharing your superior knowledge with the rest of us, please, mister villain dude?"

"Villain?"

This did not go well with Goetis. He stopped smiling and snapped his fingers again. As if on cue, Zoroark burrowed its claws into Lyra's skin, making huge cuts on her arm, causing her to squeal in pain.

"I warned you that we would be punished!" Goetis yelled. "Us humans may think we know what's best for the world, but when it comes down to it… hell, we don't even know what's best for ourselves!"

"Is this pseudo-philosophy going somewhere?" Kris yelled back.

"You may think that we're 'behind' this little fog," Goetis lectured, "but you couldn't be more wrong. Sure, it's easy for the rest of the world to label us as terrorists, but we're simply going along the ride. We're choosing the right side! And you have the audacity to march in here, into our new territory, to claim that you're some kind of heroes? Can't you see what's going on here?"

"Had you asked me that a few days ago, I probably would just have replied with 'that's what your mom said' or something," Kris admitted, "but thanks to a little singing bird, I know a little more. It's the Pokémon-Human war all over again. I hate to admit it, but Kaminko was right."

"NO!" Goetis shouted. "There will be no _need_ for war! As long as we coexist with them, the war will be inevitable! But what if we don't _need_ to coexist? They don't need us, and we don't need them anymore either. The world has is vastly different today than what it was before the war. You're too young to know, I get it. But don't think that you have some sort of authority just because you're Kaminko's puppets!"

Shane pulled on Kris' sleeve, whimpering something, but Kris jut pushed him away without looking.

"All right, all right!" Kris shouted, realizing that Goetis could easily toss Lyra down if he was agitated too much. "Just tell me what you want and let her go!"

"Don't you get it?" Goetis yelled in frustration. "This is not a hostage situation and you're not the hero who will talk to the villain into submission! It doesn't work that way! She was willing to meddle into our affairs, to stop us from saving everyone! Now you'd do the same?"

Kris shook her head.

"Crazy old bastard, isn't he?" she muttered to Shane while still keeping eye contact with Goetis.

"Kris…"

"Not now, Shane!" Kris whispered sharply. "Okay, okay, you got me!" she yelled at the rooftop gang. "I can see why you captured her, but I came here to get her out, and-"

"No you didn't!" Goetis argued. "She arrived almost a week ago, and you only bothered to show up now? I know what you're really after. Trouble is, I don't think you know yourself. You're merely pawns. You all are. _We_ all are."

Kris was only a few more insults away from losing her temper.

"Let's see here," she said sarcastically and started counting, "pawns, puppets, 'I'm not a villain and you're not a hero'-shtick, some call me X, et cetera… you're going through the villain repertoire all right!"

"Kris!" Shane whined and kept pulling on her sleeve.

"What?"

Almost ready to punch Shane, Kris turned around, but only saw Shane staring in horror and pointing at something. Kris turned too, and almost screamed when she saw what Shane saw.

Darkrai had emerged from the fog, and now floated above them, at slightly lower level than the roof where the Plasmas stood on. Its blue eyes were locked into Kris and Shane, and both started shivering at the sight of it. Darkrai seemed to violate every rule of nature just by being there - it was basically two-dimensional, like a shadow. A huge, dark blob with a long skinny arms with sharp claws on them.

"Looks like our job here is done," Goetis said and turned to Lyra, whom Zoroark still held in its grip. "I'm sorry for this, but it's the only way…"

"What?" Lyra shrieked. "No! NO!"

Goetis grabbed Lyra's legs while the Zoroark grabbed her arms. Together, they threw her off the roof, sending her plummeting towards the Darkrai, screaming all the way. Kris and Shane could only watch helplessly as Darkrai extended its arm, ready to grab Lyra…

And all of the sudden, Lyra wasn't there. The moment the Darkrai had touched her, she vanished completely. The screaming had stopped abruptly, and Kris and Shane just stared for a while. Then, Kris turned to her Croconaw again.

"Croc, kick that door in, now!" she ordered. "We're going in!"

Croc did as ordered, firing a stream of water towards the door, blasting it to pieces. Kris, Croc, Shane and Shrew ran into the library in desperate seek of a shelter, while Darkrai started to slowly float towards them.

All four of them hid behind the information desk. Croc was flexing its limbs, ready to fight no matter what kind of abomination it would face. Shrew, on the other hand, had curled itself into a ball again and had to be held by Shane. At the moment, Shane himself wished that he could curl up like that and started babbling nervously:

"What… did you see… crap… what are we gonna do? Double crap… Darkrai… triple crap… Plasma… quadr-"

"_Shut up_!" Kris snarled. "I'm trying to think!"

"_Think_?" Shane moaned. "You?"

"Who else? You? Look, I need you to keep your cool this time. It won't be like that Heatran incident. I… I won't leave you this time. That's a promise. Now calm down. We've been through worse!"

"We have?" Shane wondered.

Darkrai's enormous black figure appeared to the doorway. It was too big to hover into the library through the door… so instead, it just hovered through the walls. Kris, Shane, Croc and Shrew were as quiet as possible, but feared that the Darkrai would see them anyway. Indeed, it started to slowly hover towards the info desk…

"I don't know if we can do anything," Kris whispered as softly as possible, "but on three, we attack simultaneously. Croc and Shrew as well. Got it?"

"I… yeah," Shane flustered and wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Can I… hold your hand while we do it?"

"No."

"P-please?"

"Fine, but when we get through this, I don't want you reminding me that I voluntarily held hands with someone…"

Kris gave Shane her hand, and Shane grabbed it tightly, almost crushing Kris' fingers. And Kris had to admit it: she was scared out of her mind as well. Lyra just… disappeared into thin air like that, just by touching the thing. And was the Darkrai even bigger than before? But there was only one way out of this. The Darkrai kept on hovering closer and closer… Kris could practically hear it now…

"On three," she whispered. "One… two…"


	11. Throwing It All Away

_**THROWING IT ALL AWAY**_

"-THREE!"

Kris, Shane, Croc and Shrew jumped out from their hiding place, Croc and Shrew jumping on the info desk. Darkrai could barely react to this when Croc blasted it with steaming hot water, keeping Darkrai at bay. Simultaneously, Shrew used Sand-Attack, briefly blinding the one-eyed beast.

Using their Pokétch-powers at the same time, Kris and Shane fired at the Darkrai while retreating towards the stairs. Nothing was heard over the horrible, wailing noise that Darkrai emitted, Kris' and Shane's yelling and the squeaks and grunts of their Pokémon. Even Shane managed to produce a Swift powerful enough to hurt Darkrai at least a bit. Kris stopped firing briefly and started to run up the stairs.

"….RUN!" she screamed over the noise.

Shane did as told, and Croc and Shrew soon followed. But the stairs were narrow and steep, and soon Shrew tripped over on its belly and started to slide down, right towards Darkrai's extended arm…

Noticing Shrew's predicament, Shane started running as well. Kris noticed this once she and Croc reached the second floor, but couldn't do anything but watch as the Darkrai grabbed both Shane and Shrew, causing both to vanish. And Darkrai seemed to grow even bigger…

* * *

_Meanwhile, at SledgeHammer HQ's control room_

For once, Ein and Celio were both quiet as they sat on their chairs and kept their eyes firmly at the monitors. A loud 'PING'-noise echoed from Ein's monitor, causing Touko to run to him.

"What is it?" she asked anxiously.

"Uh… Shane and his Sandshrew," Ein said. "They seem to be… gone."

"What do you mean, 'gone'? Did they faint?"

"No, look at this…"

Ein pointed at the monitors. The yellow number '9' (Shane) that had been previously blinking was now gone dark. Usually, when an operative was incapacitated, the letters 'FNT' appeared next to their names, but now, there was just silence. The same had happened to the red number '6' that signified Lyra.

"What's happening to 'em?" White wondered. "Elm! Blaine! Isn't this supposed to be your expertise or something?"

Professor and Blaine had spent their time standing around the lab, occasionally muttering to themselves, mostly saying nothing. Now, they both walked to Ein's monitor, but both just scowled and kept their mouths shut, much to Touko's annoyance.

"Well?"

"Lieutenant," Celio said before neither Elm or Blaine could offer their opinions, "Kris is trying to contact us. Shall I open the comm line?"

"Yes!" White yelled. "Use your own judgment for once!"

Celio pressed a button, but at first, the group didn't hear anything. Then, they could hear sharp, panicked breathing coming from the loudspeakers.

"Kris!" White said firmly. "What's your status?"

"_This is not going well! Shane and Lyra are both… gone! Lyra's Quilava and Shane's Sandshrew as well! They just…I can't…they're just gone! Darkrai's here! In the library! It just keeps coming… what do I do?"_"Kris, seriously, relax!" White yelled, then turned to Ein. "Can't you give her something?" she asked the doctor. "Diazepam or whatever will calm her down a bit."

"Well, maybe not _that_," Ein said, "but yeah, I can administer something, hold on…"

Ein pressed a button, and pretty soon Kris' breathing sounded more normal, and her voice was less panicked, but the voice that echoed from the loudspeakers was nonetheless frightened.

"_Okay… okay, thanks… now what?"  
_

"Kris, professor Elm here," Elm said as he leaned towards the microphone. "What exactly happened?"

"_Team Plasma was here, they knew we were coming. I dunno how, but that doesn't matter! They captured Cresselia too! They threw Lyra on the Darkrai and she just… vanished. Shane suffered the same fate. I can't hold it back for long!"_Elm started pondering, ignoring the gravity of the situation completely as he stepped back and forward in the room:

"Hmm… I didn't know Darkrai had such properties… professor Juniper possibly had files on it, but she didn't come to work today… I guess I could get clearance from Kaminko…"

Then Elm stopped pondering when he realized that Touko, Blaine, Ein and Celio were all staring at him, Touko looking particularly nervous. Elm nervously pulled up his glasses.

"W-what I was saying that," he flustered, "is that I could-"

"GO!" White shouted. "Go, for God's sake!"

Elm stormed out of the room, and the moment the automatic doors opened when Elm ran out, Cheren Black stepped in. Elm himself ran towards the elevator and didn't notice Cheren's presence, so Cheren just walked cockily into the control room. Touko was the first one to notice him, and instantly made balls with her fists and squinted, then marched to the door to meet the man.

"Cheren Black," she said icily.

"Ah, hello there, Touko," Cheren replied jovially and stepped forward with his hand open, "may I say that you're looking lovely today. I was merely-"

"I don't give a Patrat's ass about your dealings with SledgeHammer," Touko said, staring at Cheren as frostily as she could, "and I couldn't care less about why you're here. But you're _not_ coming into the control room on my watch! This is my operation! _Get out_!"

"Relax, Touko," Cheren said, still grinning, "I was merely going to watch how well a Lieutenant like you-"

"Hate to interrupt your reunion," Blaine said from the other end of the room, "but we're contacting Leaf now! Do you have a plan in place or not?"

"Be right there, Blaine!" Touko yelled, then turned back to Cheren. "And _you_! Get the hell out or I'll call security!"

Cheren smiled and bowed at Touko annoyingly before casually walking out. Touko took a deep breath, then walked to the monitors. She pushed Blaine away from the microphone and nodded at Celio so he'd open the comm line. They heard Leaf's voice instantly:

"_Dr. Greene here. Me and Touya have reached Fullmoon Island. It's completely empty, but we did find some Cresselia feathers, possibly from the Lunar Wing. We can_-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Touko interrupted. "Now get back to Canalave as fast as possible. Do you still have Touya's Pokémon with you?"

"_Oh yes. What's this about? Oh, let me guess… the operation didn't go as planned, huh_?"

"No time for sarcastic remarks, Leaf!" Touko snapped. "The ideal location is the roof of the Canalave Gym. Get there and as soon as you see Darkrai, tear it apart!"

"_Understood_,"

"All right, Celio, now switch back to Kris!" Touko ordered.

Blaine, who was currently standing behind Touko and the others, scoffed.

"You really think you can just beat Darkrai with force?" he asked. "It's not like Heatran. We don't have enough data yet."

"Hey, I am _not_ screwing this op!" Touko said as she turned around to face Blaine. "If I don't make it, the boss will have my ass on a plate. And I've grown rather fond of my ass - it's gotten me where I am today!"

"Whatever," Blaine said and shrugged nonchalantly, "but once Touya is in place, let me know. We can have live video, thanks to a little camera that's in Touya's-"

Blaine suddenly saw the expressions of Ein and Celio, but Touko had her back turned on them, so she couldn't see. Blaine was quick to continue the sentence after a short pause:

"-in Touya's hat," Blaine finished.

"Oh," Touko said and smiled. "Well, I hope we didn't break it last night… things got a little wild if you know what I mean…"

Touko made sure to say the last sentence relatively loudly to make sure everyone would hear. Blaine rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Uh, Touko…" he said. "Not that it's any of my business, but have you and Touya been… _intimate_ recently?"

"You're right, it ain't your business!" Touko said, but she still smiled, and pretty soon changed her mind: "But, now that you've asked… yes! Totally!"

Blaine started to feel a little queasy, and both Ein and Celio had horrified expressions on their faces. Touko was nonetheless feeling too smug to notice.

"But…" Blaine whimpered. "How does that even… I mean…"

"Uh, I assumed that a science-dude like you would know about birds and bees and stuff," Touko said. "Now, Celio, contact Kris already!"

"Right, right…"

But when Celio opened communications, they heard the most horrifying sound and had to cover their ears. A horrid, screeching, wailing sound echoed in the laboratory, coming with full volume from every loudspeaker. And from the background, the group could clearly hear Kris yelling orders at Croc.

Then, after just a few agonizingly long seconds, silence.

The little blinking number '5' on Ein's monitor turned dark as Touko, Blaine, Ein and Celio stared in horror, completely silent. Blaine was the first to recover.

"Darkrai," he said bluntly.

"Well, duh," Touko rebutted.

* * *

_Meanwhile, in Goldenrod City_…

Doctor Krane was standing outside the Goldenrod Game Corner. Juniper was in there, no doubt. But it was not going to be easy. Anxiously, he made one final call to professor Kaminko. The latter picked up the phone immediately.

"_Yes_?"

"Professor, it's Krane. I-"

"_Impeccable timing, doctor_," said the smarmy professor on the other end of the line, "_professor Elm just burst into the office. Said something about wanting to take a look at miss Juniper's research. It looks like her time here is up_. _Have you found her_?"

"Yes, she hasn't gone far," Krane said, "but look, sir, do we really have to do this? Can't we just let Juniper quit or something? She's gone through a lot of crap already!"

"_Yes, and the 'crap' you speak of is ripe to be exploited by us. The circumstances are ideal. All you have to do is… talk her into it. It's funny, but it sounds like you think we're committing outright _murder _here_…"

"Well aren't we?"

Krane held the PokéGear nervously, feeling his hand trembling. There was brief silence on the other end, but finally Kaminko responded by laughing creepily.

"_Oh, doctor Krane_," he said, "_you have a lot to learn, I'm afraid. We're not monsters here. This is just in accordance of the plan. You don't need to feel guilty about _anything. _But if you feel you're inadequate for the job, I can always find someone else_…"

"It's not that!" Krane protested. "I just… okay, fine! I'm going in to have talk with her. I'll call you when this is done…"

"_Thank you, doctor_," Kaminko said. "_Take your time_."

As Krane stepped in, the overpowering aroma of vomiting teenagers and burning alcohol made him wince. Bravely, he nonetheless squeezed past the slot machines and made his way into the bar, quickly spotting Juniper sitting alone. Her table was full of empty glasses, and in the middle was an ashtray that was becoming dangerously full. Juniper just stared in front of her with a cigarette in hand, not responding to her environment at all. Before coming into contact with her, Krane walked to the bar.

"Hey," Krane said to the waiter whose back was turned at him, "can I get a- AAH!"

Krane flinched a bit when he saw that the 'waiter' was in fact a Mr. Mime wearing an apron. A closer inspection revealed that the Game Corner was staffed entirely by Mr. Mimes, smiling brightly as they carried glasses to people and cleaned up their vomit. At the other end of the bar, one Mr. Mime used Barrier to deflect the glasses that the drunkards threw at it.

"What the hell happened to good old human labor?" Krane lamented. "Whatever, you, Pokémon, I'll be sitting with that lady over there so just… bring me water or something."

The Mr. Mime nodded and quickly rushed to get a glass for Krane, who made his way to Juniper's table. Juniper completely ignored Krane and simply stared in front of her as Krane took a seat next to her.

"Hi, professor!" Krane said, faking cheeriness. "Funny seeing you here. I was just coming to get a drink and-"

"You can stop faking," Juniper muttered.

Juniper stubbed out her cigarette and immediately lit another one. During the brief silence, the Mr. Mime waddled to the table and gave Krane the glass of ice water he had asked for. Krane grabbed the glass rudely from the Mr. Mime without even thanking, mumbling something about 'taking our jobs'.

"I know you live in Acculuma Town, doc," Juniper said, "that's where your local is. I've been there a couple of times. It smells like piss."

"Yeah, but I swear, it's not mine," Krane said, "anyway, I guess you caught me…"

"Does Kaminko want me to come back to work?" Juniper asked monotonously. "'Cause you can just tell him to-"

"Actually," Krane said, "I didn't want you to know this, but… professor Kaminko is already preparing your replacement."

Krane was pulling all the right things… and he also felt horrible for lying his eyes out. Of course Kaminko wanted Juniper to know it. It was all going according to plan… Juniper reacted immediately, as she extinguished her cigarette and turned to look at Krane. Her makeup was smeared all over her face and her hair made her look like she had just been hit by a tornado. But instead of crying, Juniper squinted and looked furious.

"Who?" she asked sternly.

"I don't-"

"_Who_! I want to know! If it's that bitch Leaf… wait, it is her, isn't it? Right?"

Krane was quiet. He had no idea, but the idea alone was probably enough to drive Juniper over the edge, so he nodded.

"I _knew_ it!" Juniper shouted and slammed the table with her fist, knocking over a few glasses. "All that time I tried to be nice to her and tried to be her friend, yet she refused to respond back _every time_! She was just after my job! There goes my last hope for humanity… you know…"

Juniper took another drink before continuing. Even though the amount of alcohol she had consumed could be considered lethal amongst some, Juniper just kept on going without losing her composure… more than she already had. After finishing her drink, Juniper eyed the Mr. Mime waiters.

"I'm surprised the situation isn't reversed already," she said sadly. "Just think about it… what if we were serving drinks to _them_? Looking at the way we run things now, I'm _really_ surprised that the legendaries haven't crumbled us to dust already…"

Krane was quiet, despite his urge to protest and tell Juniper how wrong and stupid she was being for not having faith in humanity, the greatest species ever. He needed to nudge her in the right direction…

"What's on your mind right now… Toshiko?" Krane asked, cringing as he had to say Juniper's first name in a 'nice' tone.

"My mind?" Juniper repeated and smiled gauntly. "It's a mess. There's nowhere I can go where people don't constantly shout obscenities at me. Ever since I was on that horrible talk show… and now I can't even come back to work… what am I going to do? It's like I've lost control completely, like I can't do _anything_ anymore…"

Krane suddenly thought of something fitting to add.

"Well, you know something?" he said. "I believe you have something there… it's like we're just Hoppip on the wind. We can't change the circumstances. But we _can_ change the way we react to the circumstances."

Juniper looked Krane in the eyes, and Krane desperately wanted her to stop, but nonetheless stared back.

"Wow… that was surprisingly deep of you, doctor," Juniper said and even smiled a bit.

Krane was surprised. The Hoppip thing was just based on some bad poetry he had read. But apparently it had done the trick.

"And you know how I want to react to the circumstances right now?" Juniper said. "By just taking the easiest way out. The back door. Just… end this whole charade we call life…"

Juniper started staring at her glass again, tears starting to well up in her eyes. Krane, on the other hand, nervously took another sip of water. He was going through an enormous conflict. Juniper was reacting even better than he had hoped. Problem was, he could never forgive himself for actually talking her into it… but what choice did he have?

Krane's meditating was interrupted when Juniper unexpectedly grabbed his hand, staring at him and smiling tearfully.

"You know something, Krane?" she said, and Krane just mumbled something in return. "You're not so bad after all… for two years we've been working together, and basically the image I got from you was 'spineless yes-man'… and, well, you kinda are that. But right now, I can see that there's something more to you too…"

"Uh… thanks?"

"No problem," Juniper replied and dried her eyes to the sleeves of her lab coat. "Krane… Paul… I'm going to do it. Consider this night the last night of my life. I want to get hammered before that. More than I am now. And… I want you to be here too. Before I go…"

"I… yeah, of course I will," Krane mumbled. "I mean, I've tried to cut back on the drink, but…"

"Forget about it right now," Juniper said. "Drinks one me!"

And for the rest of the evening, all the way until 2 AM, Juniper and Krane ordered one drink after another. The Game Corner was getting emptier and emptier, until only Juniper and Krane were left, laughing hysterically in their little table, hurling glasses at the Mr. Mime-waiters. Over the course of the evening, Krane even helped Juniper writing her last note. While doing so, Krane felt even more horrible. The alcohol helped things somewhat, but Krane still realized what he was doing when Juniper mentioned her two daughters…

Around 2:30 AM, Krane and Juniper were finally forced to leave. Juniper had to help Krane walk to the door, but she wasn't exactly in great condition either, constantly almost falling down on her ass. At the door, Juniper let go of Krane. The short, stubby doctor had to grab on the door handle to keep himself standing upright.

"Thanks for the spiffing night, doc," Juniper mumbled drunkenly. "Felt good to have lots of drinks one last time…"

"Weh… Whe… Where yer gonna do it?" Krane stuttered, trying to keep his focus.

"There's a… bridge… thingy… between Goldenrod and the National Park… no one there right now… sharp rocks underneath… should be quick…"

Juniper and Krane stumbled outside, to the cold night. The streets of Goldenrod City were completely void of all life - it was a weekday, after all. Before disappearing into the night, Juniper had one last thing to say:

"Keep up the good work, Krane," she said. "When you see Kaminko… tell him I'm gonna come back as a zombie just to spite 'im…"

"Uh… shure," Krane slurred. "Well, um… bye…"

"Bye," Juniper said and turned around.

When Juniper started walking to the north, towards the bridge that was clearly visible in the horizon, illuminated by countless lamps, Krane quickly gathered him and came to a realization. What the hell was he doing?

"Wait!" Krane yelled.

Juniper stopped walking. Krane, still very drunk, took his time to stumble towards her and grabbed her by her collar:

"Don't do it," Krane muttered. "Just… don't do it. You can't do it!"

Krane didn't care what Kaminko would say. He was not going to let her go. He had never met anyone like her, and in Krane's opinion, the two had so much in common. After two decades of putting up with his overbearing wife, Krane had finally found someone… and that someone was about to disappear forever.

But Juniper merely smiled at Krane, grabbed his hand and shook it earnestly.

"Thanks for caring about me," she said, "but I've made up my mind. Don't worry. This is probably for the best. I have no reason to stay. Goodbye."

And with that, Juniper turned tail and quickly disappeared into the night before the drunken Krane could offer his rebuttal. Krane fell on his knees on the cold sidewalk and stared into the night long after Juniper had disappeared. He could only have one thing to say:

"…no…"

* * *

_An hour later, in Canalave City, Sinnoh…_

Leaf and Touya were at the perfect vantage point. They had managed to make their way to the roof of the Canalave Gym. The distance from the library was perfect. Through her binoculars, Leaf could see Darkrai through the library's windows, but Darkrai couldn't see them. No sign of Kris, Lyra or Shane, though…

Touya stood next to Leaf, robotically staring at the library.

"Doctor Greene," he said, "what is our next objective?"

Leaf lowered her binoculars and smiled at the brown-haired man.

"No need to be so formal," she said, "just call me Leaf. Oh, by the way, I have something for you… Elm asked me to deliver this…"

Leaf took something from her pocket - a Poké Ball. She handed it to Touya, who shyly took it, but instead of opening it, he just stared at it.

"Leaf," Touya said, "what is this?"

"I don't know if you remember, but before the… accident," Leaf said considerately, "you had a tough little Oshawott with you. If I ever saw you with anyone other than Touko, it would have been that Pokémon. During your little absence, that Oshawott grew… considerably. Open it."

Touya pressed the Poké Ball's button, opening it. A large blue Pokémon standing on both legs materialized in front of them. It was like a sea lion and a samurai combined, with a large, helmet-like shell on its head. The helmet was covered with spikes and had a long, pointy shear in the front. The Pokémon had long, white whiskers and it had spiky metal plates all over its body. Upon being released, it roared and immediately walked to Touya, still recognizing its old trainer.

"Say hello to Samurott, your partner," Leaf smiled.

The Samurott barked happily and even licked Touya a bit, but Touya just stared at it expressionlessly. After a long pause, something seemed to register in Touya's face, and he patted the Samurott's snout.

"My partner?" Touya repeated quietly.

Leaf didn't hear it. She was looking through her binoculars again. Darkrai had floated through the library walls and was now on the roof, moving back and forth apparently aimlessly. There was no sign of Ghetsis, Team Plasma or Cresselia, which Darkrai was apparently searching.

"What is it doing?" Leaf wondered to herself. "What did it do to the others? And where the hell is Elm with that research data. It's been forever… ah."

Finally, Leaf's radio was starting to make miscellaneous noises, so she handed the binoculars to Touya and answered the call.

"Leaf here," she said. "We have visual on the target. It's still circling the Canalave Library. If Touya is half as good as you said he was, he and Samurott should have a clean shot. But shouldn't we observe it first?"

"_No way_!"

Touko's voice on the end was instantly recognizable - she sounded shrill and excited, wanting to get the operation done as well as possible.

"_Elm and Blaine are analizing or doing whatever to the data they've found, but I'm sticking to the plan. If something doesn't come up within ten minutes, I'm giving you a free opportunity to fire at will_."

"But this is an unique opportunity!" Leaf objected. "There's so much we could learn from it…"

"_We already have a giant magma frog thingy in our basement_," Touko said in her usual eloquent style, "_and professor Kaminko probably agrees with me. We'll blast it. Right now, just make sure it doesn't go anywhere. Once we get rid of it, the fog should subside and things should get back to normal_."

"What about Kris, Shane and Lyra?"

"_They'll turn up. Or not. I dunno. But hey, you have ten minutes. Do science to it or something, just don't get swallowed by it. And one more thing_!"

"What?" Leaf asked.

"_We just received a message from the Goldenrod Police. They've found professor Juniper's body from the river in National Park. According to Kaminko, you're in charge of the science team now_."

"Wha… you gotta be… what about Nilsson? I now I'm the deputy, but he has more experience… I… I don't know what to say…"

"_Then shut up_!" Touko said. "_As for Nilsson… well, the police found a bloody lab coat with his name tag from an alley in Ecruteak. I wouldn't keep my hopes up. Sorry, but you're in the leader's circle now! Over and out_."

Leaf hung up on Touko, but still couldn't believe her incredible luck. Briefly, she even forgot all about mission. Sure enough, she should be grieving Juniper. Or she could wonder how the hell did Darkrai 'swallow' Kris, Lyra and Shane like that. But right now, she had the whole world. She was in command!

"Leaf?" Touya asked. "What are your orders?"

"It's Doctor Greene to you!" Leaf said as she snatched the binoculars from Touya. "Listen up. Prepare your little samurai sea lion buddy there and take aim. When I give the order, blast the thing. You think you can handle it?"

"Me and Oshawott should be able to conjure a Hydro Cannon together," Touya said. "According to my calculations, it will be potent enough to at least fatally wound the Darkrai, considering the distance."

"Very nice," Leaf said. "Get ready."

* * *

**_A/N: Sorry for the delay, but I finally got this working. Apparently, you have to add a little 0 to the URL of the story you want to edit, otherwise you'll get the error message again and again. Here's the last two chapters, thanks for the reviews. Next story, "Just Say The Word", is coming soon._**


	12. One Vision

_**ONE VISION**_

When Kris finally woke up, it felt as if she had been sleeping for days on end. Her eyelids felt extremely heavy and she refused to open them, even though she could hear a faint voice calling for her.

"Kris… Kriiiis… wake uuuup…"

"Mhm…" Kris muttered in response and slowly opened her eyes. "Five more minutes…"

Only after opening her eyes did Kris realize where she was. She was sitting on a comfortable, soft chair where she could easily sleep some more. When Kris looked down, she felt mildly confused to see that there was nothing there - the chair was just kind of floating in the purplish darkness. Oddly enough, this didn't bother her. Kris felt oddly warm and comfortable. She looked drowsily around her, but only saw the same darkness everywhere until she finally saw two other chairs, floating similarly as hers.

Lyra and Shane were sitting on the chairs next to Kris, and both were also waking up. Shane rubbed his eyes, yawned and started scratching his head dizzily while Lyra looked around her lazily. She noticed Kris, but didn't seem to be at all bothered by the situation either.

"Hey, Zimmerman…" she mumbled. "Are we… somewhere?"

"Um… I suppose," Kris replied, being equally disoriented.

"Well… where are our Pokémon?" Lyra wondered.

"Guys…" Shane said and pointed somewhere. "I think they're over there…"

Kris and Lyra turned their heads a bit, and all of the sudden, there they were. Kris' Croconaw, Lyra's Quilava and Shane's Sandshrew were all frolicking happily along in the dark void, playing together and completely ignoring their rivalries. When their trainers noticed them, the Pokémon stopped briefly to wave at them, then continued playing, chasing each other and practicing their attacks.

"Huh," Kris said. "Well, they're happy, I guess…"

"Yeah," Shane agreed. "You know what? I'm feelin' mighty fine as well…"

Shane leaned backwards in his soft, comfortable chair and closed his eyes.

"Wake me up when something interesting happens," he yawned.

But something interesting happened almost instantly. Someone materialized in front of them from the darkness, but even this didn't even make any of the three flinch. They just stared as a tubby, middle-aged man in a sailor uniform walked up to them.

"Finally," the sailor said. "I've been waiting for ages, and that felt even longer in this place, believe me!"

"Uh… I'd hate to sound rude," Kris said, "but who the hell are you?"

"Back in your world, I was Eldritch," the sailor said and raised his sailor hat politely.

"Eldritch?" Lyra repeated, then turned to look at Kris. "Isn't he that dude that we were supposed to help because he disappeared or something?"

"Uh, I guess so," Kris said. "Mission accomplished, then?"

"Not quite," Eldritch said. "As I said, I _was_ Eldritch. After Darkrai came in contact with me, we became one. I merely assumed this form to avoid shocking you, but now that you know…"

Eldritch snapped his fingers and started morphing. He turned pitch-black and his head and limbs disappeared, turning him into a black, featureless blob. The blob grew long arms, sharp claws, a red collar and one, blue eye. Finally, it assumed an hourglass-shaped form and a white, ghostly fog appeared over its head. It was now a Darkrai, but neither Kris, Lyra or the half-asleep Shane were afraid of it. Maybe it was because this Darkrai was not the giant that attacked them in the library, but it was roughly their size, maybe even smaller.

"Whaddyaknow," Shane said. "That would be a great trick in bar mitzvahs…"

"We regret to tell you that we consumed Mr. Eldritch because we needed a human-shaped avatar to come into contact with other humans," the Darkrai said.

Kris, Lyra and Shane moved in their chairs uncomfortably. That was weird… they didn't know the Darkrai could speak. It didn't even have a mouth! Yet they could distinctly fear a deep but very calm, serene and soothing voice talking to them. It almost seemed like the Darkrai had read their minds, as it responded immediately:

"We are merely projecting my thoughts into your heads," it explained, "and we physically came into contact with you to make our conversations easier. None of us will be disturbed here."

"I'm sorry if this seems like a stupid question," Kris said, "but where is '_here_'?"

"It is difficult to explain," Darkrai said, "but it is not important. Aren't you happy here?"

"Well definitely," Lyra agreed before the others could even respond. "It's warm and cozy and I feel drowsy yet comfortable… like when you're given morphine!"

"Take a look at your Pokémon, too," Darkrai said. "They are happy too. In fact, they get along, even if their trainers don't. You probably have no hurry back, especially because the flow of time here is different. _Much_ different. We can tell you what we needed to say."

"Does this place seem familiar to either of you?" Shane wondered, having decided not to sleep when Darkrai was constantly talking inside his head.

Kris and Lyra shook their heads, but Darkrai seemed to understand, as it now turned its eye in Shane's direction.

"We wouldn't be surprised," Darkrai said. "Records show that you either have or have already visited this place before. We have difficulties explaining this place for you in terms you can understand."

"…huh?"

"Some of us legendary Pokémon already know about the adventures of the ones called Kris and Shane," Darkrai explained, "that happened in another world, in another timeline, but the people were the same. Now, the timeline needs to be fixed. All the data we have stops at 2099."

"What about me, then?" Lyra asked, sounding slightly offended.

"We have no records about the one called Lyra," Darkrai said, turning its focus to her, "but it would appear that your presence is essential to the mission as well. The reason I summoned you three here was to give you a warning. Our fallen friend, Heatran, will not survive in captivity for long. Once your scientists have extracted its core, they will have no use for it. I fear the same fate waits for the rest of us. Should someone possess the cores of all of us, along with the plates of origin, it would greatly upset the power balance. Stopping this from occurring should be your first priority. To that end, the upcoming war must be prevented."

"War?"

Kris, Lyra and Shane all said this simultaneously. In their drowsy state, they couldn't sound too anxious, but all three were equally confused.

"It will begin by the Pokémon drifting apart from humans," Darkrai explained, "then, the Pokémon will drift apart from each other, and shortly after that, humanity will follow. The whole world will be engulfed in endless conflict, and all of it will prove to be futile in the turn of the century."

"Are you going to do something?" Lyra asked.

"The reason we captured Eldritch and this entire city was so we could peacefully assume the sailor's form and warn the populace," Darkrai said. "We accomplish nothing in our true form, as no one dares to approach us. But now that you three are here, we have a better plan. You three can give a warning to all of humanity and stop they key players before it's too late."

"Who are they?" Kris wondered.

"Aside from professor Kaminko, there is Ghetsis," Darkrai said. "We also sense an unknown third party. The power struggle between Kaminko and Ghetsis is the most dangerous element here. Ghetsis has captured our counterpart, Cresselia, as her Lunar Wing is one of the few things that have the potential to stop us."

"But she's psychic-type," Lyra said, wanting to show off her knowledge, "and you're dark-type, so you shouldn't even break a sweat…"

"It is not that simple," Darkrai said, "as we were created, we were originally one, but Cresselia drifted apart due to disagreement. She created her own form, her own gender, everything to drift apart from us. Her existence nonetheless allowed a state of balance, which Team Plasma hoped to upset, thinking we would endanger the entire Sinnoh region and capture you three Extranormal Operatives."

"Well, that went better than they hoped," Kris said, "what are they gonna do now?"

"They misunderstood our purpose, but it is likely that they have left Sinnoh already," Darkrai said, "they are now most likely going to evoke similar reactions in other legendary Pokémon to create a rift between humans and Pokémon. They hope that other Pokémon follow the example of the legendaries and turn against humans, thus creating two different worlds."

"But… let me get this straight," Lyra said. "So you _don't_ want that. So was Kaminko wrong or what? I mean, what with the Suicune-killing and you abducting Eldritch and Heatran's rampage… you legendaries sure are sending us mixed signals… do you want to be our BFF's or do you just want to sauté us all?"

"There are far bigger things in play here," Darkrai explained, "our communication abilities with you humans are scarce. There is struggling amidst our fellow legendaries as well. Some of us truly want to retake this world from humans. We are among the group that wish to unite humans and Pokémon against the greater enemy."

"Huh!" Shane squealed. "That sounded pants-crappingly ominous… what is the greater enemy?"

"We cannot foresee it yet," Darkrai said. "The only thing we can do at the moment is to stop the struggle between Kaminko and Ghetsis, find out who the third party is and fix the timeline. We still have about two and a half years before the promised day. In a moment, we will offer you two options. You can opt to remain here, and we shall use Eldritch as our avatar, hopefully to get the message out to the champion of Sinnoh. That, or you can return to the cold outside world and do your best to stop Kaminko and Ghetsis. That would, however, require you to turn against your comrades… either way, we shouldn't take too long, despite the different flow of time. Whilst communicating with you, we are vulnerable to attack."

"Wait!" Lyra exclaimed. "What about Leaf and Touya? They've probably been to Fullmoon by now…"

"Relax," Kris said calmly. "Cresselia isn't there anyway, remember? They can't just attack Darkrai head-on…"

"I hope you're right…"

"We must now give you the most important message of all," Darkrai said. "Take a good look at your Pokémon."

Kris, Lyra and Shane looked, and all three felt relaxed and happy to see their Pokémon playing together.

"They have managed to see past their differences, despite everything that has happened," Darkrai said. "They don't cling on to past squabbles, those insignificant little details in their lives that ultimately amount to nothing but sorrow and bitterness if they're constantly brought up. And before you say anything, they're more intelligent than just animals with extraordinary powers."

Kris, Lyra and Shane squeezed the comfortable armrests of their chairs and reluctantly looked at each other. Yet, in the relaxed, quiet, calm space they were in, everything just felt easy. The right words were coming to their heads, and they had understood just about everything Darkrai had said. Kris was opening her mouth, but then saw Darkrai moving around nervously, with its one eye moving back and forth.

"What is it?" Kris asked.

"We… sense something," Darkrai said. "Two humans and a Pokémon, nearby… you must finish this quickly!"

"I thought we had all the time in the world?" Shane said. "And there's a lot of ground to cover. Besides, this place is so warm… so comfortable…"

"What about the mission, though?" Lyra wondered. "Don't get me wrong, I'm having second thoughts as well, but… can we really just ditch it?"

"Why not?" Kris said. "It's not like Kaminko's claws can reach us here. I wouldn't mind staying… I still want to hear more about these 'adventures' me and Shane supposedly got into… or will get into… or are currently getting into, I dunno…"

But something was happening. Time was indeed running out. Kris, Lyra and Shane were rapidly starting to feel pain again. They all felt uneasy and uncomfortable in their chairs, and their Pokémon stopped playing as well. Kris, Lyra and Shane were all slowly drifting apart from each other, and the darkness around them was fading away…

* * *

_SledgeHammer HQ, control room_

"Destroy it."

Touko, Elm, Blaine, Ein and Celio all turned around in surprise when they saw professor Kaminko himself entering the control room, towering all of them and drowning out their objections with his deep, authoritarian voice.

"Their time is up," Kaminko said. "Give Touya the orders."

"Sir, if we could have a little more time," professor Elm pleaded. "We have made a remarkable discovery. When coming into contact with our agents and their Pokémon, Darkrai was able to absorb their corporeal forms, sending their… _non-corporeal _forms, or their, um… _souls_ if you wish to a place where our sensors can't go. This may explain how Darkrai is able to violate the laws of physics so easily. Maybe it manages to move between dimensions, and has cast our agents there as well! Maybe we can-"

"I've gone over Juniper's research, thank you very much," Kaminko said. "If we don't do something soon, the agents will be lost forever. But there's a good chance that we can retrieve them if we act now!"

"Retrieve _them_, huh?" Blaine asked and crossed his arms. "Or retrieve their expensive little brain chips?"

"Lieutenant White," Kaminko said.

Touko instantly stood up straight and saluted, wanting to make sure she would send no wrong signals to Kaminko - she was ready to do whatever was necessary.

"I'll leave this to you," Kaminko said. "You're responsible of the mission, after all."

"Thank you, sir!" Touko said. "I've already made up my mind."

Elm and Blaine tried to object, but Touko turned to face Ein and Celio. Touko nodded to Celio, who opened a communications channel with Leaf. Ein, on the other hand, stared at his monitors in confusion.

"Uh, lieutenant…" he said. "I don't know what just happened, but we're getting readings again. Agents five, six and nine… they're all alive. I guess they're just… sitting in the thing's belly or something?"

Touko turned to look. Kaminko pushed Elm and Blaine out of his way and marched next to her to see the monitors as well. Kaminko quickly tried to hide his grin behind his beard and adjusted his glasses to see better. Next to the icons of Kris, Lyra and Shane were additional marks. The chips had done their tasks - the seeds were planted.

"It seems that it's either now or never," Kaminko said.

Touko nodded.

_Meanwhile, in Canalave_…

"Amazing," Leaf muttered to herself.

She was still watching Darkrai through her binoculars. It was still completely stationary on the roof of the library. Touya was kneeled down and was aiming his Pokétch at the Darkrai, while Samurott was standing on its hind legs to see Darkrai better.

"It's properties are completely out of this world," Leaf whispered. "I'd love to look inside that thing…"

But her thoughts were interrupted by radio chatter. She was being signaled, so she quickly tossed the binoculars away and grabbed her radio.

"Yes?"

"_Destroy it_!" Touko ordered. "_No time to think, just give Touya the orders!_"

"Already?" Leaf complained. "Come _oooon_… there's so many things I would like to find out about that thing… can't we capture it alive?"

"_Negative. Destroy the thing! You can rummage through its guts or whatever you want to do _after _we've killed it. Do it now!_"

"Fine…"

Leaf turned to face Touya and his Samurott.

"Are you ready?" she asked. "Fire!"

Samurott opened its humongous mouth while Touya focused his Pokétch. First, both projected a bright, blue flash of light. Then, large blue orbs materialized in Samurott's mouth and in front of Touya's Pokétch. Next, both fired the orbs at the same time.

The dual Hydro Cannon hit its intended target, and Darkrai didn't even move out of the way when it was hit by the destructive masses of water. What followed next was an explosion brutal enough to briefly blind Leaf, who had to avert her eyes. Samurott did the same, but Touya simply watched monotonously, without even changing an expression, at what happened to the Darkrai.

When the smoke cleared, Darkrai was gone. On the library roof, there were just shreds of black mass and the red, spiky collar. Along with three unconscious people and three unconscious Pokémon, all covered in water and black goo.

"It seems that we've found your missing agents, Dr. Greene," Touya informed.

On the roof the library, Kris, Lyra and Shane were slowly recovering. Slowly, they were beginning to realize that not only were they covered in odd gunk, but that they were also in pain. All of them were holding their heads and cradling their arms, having fallen quite violently after the explosion. Kris was the first one to be able to talk after spitting some of the black goo from her mouth:

"Whahappenh?" she said incoherently.

"No idea," Shane muttered, "but I feel like I've just been in a blender or something… Shrew! Shrew are you all right?"

The injured little Pokémon crawled towards Shane, who picked it up and cleaned its face. Fortunately, Shrew seemed to be completely fine otherwise, just in shock. Kris and Lyra also did the same to Croc and Scorch, respectively. After finally realizing the situation, Lyra stood up and walked to Kris.

"You came here," Lyra said bluntly. "You rescued me."

"Well, we tried, anyway," Kris said.

Lyra offered Kris her hand and pulled her up on her feet. Kris felt she could stand upright, and though her knees were waddling a bit, she had no broken bones or anything. Shane, holding Shrew in his arms, joined the two, and they just looked the black mess around them in confusion. Kris spotted the red collar.

"Did we do this?" she wondered. "I have more power than I thought…"

"No," Lyra said. "Look."

Lyra pointed to the Canalave Gym, which was not far from them. On the rooftop, Leaf, Touya and Touya's Samurott were waving at them, yelling something that none of them could quite hear.

"Huh," Lyra said. "You brought the whole cavalry."

"Yup," Kris replied.

Lyra picked up her fluffy marshmallow hat from the ground and quickly used it to cover her face. It was good luck that her face was so wet and covered in goo - Lyra was blushing.

"…thanks," she said nervously, kicking the air while staring at the ground. "I never thought you of all people would come after me."

"All in a day's work," Kris said.

Kris herself was slightly confused by her own words. This was the perfect opportunity to gloat, or to get back at Lyra for all the stuff she had made her put up with, or just say something to bring Lyra down a peg. But Kris didn't feel like it. Somehow, despite being wet, cold, hungry and sticky, Kris felt good. Lyra was still feeling awkward and wringed her hands nervously.

"Also," she said, "sorry for being… well, you know. I know that doesn't make up for everything, but-"

"It does," Kris said sincerely. "It's just the way you said it. I'm sorry too."

Lyra raised her head, looking befuddled as Kris smiled at her. Somehow, Lyra managed to smile back, even cracking a nervous laugh. Shane, of course, had to ruin the moment.

"Well ain't that schweet," Shane said in a mocking tone. "Makesh you go all d'awwww, right Shrew?"

But what Lyra did next surprised Shane and effectively shut him up at the same time. Lyra marched up to Shane, who retreated a bit, expecting to be punched in the face. But instead Lyra wrapped her arms around Shane and squeezed tightly.

"You came to save me too, right?" she said. "Thank you so much…"

Shane didn't respond to the hug. He had dropped Shrew in his confusion, and was just staring at Kris over Lyra's shoulder, looking annoyed and confused.

"What the hell is she doing?" Shane yelled at Kris. "Lyra, what the hell are you-"

"Come on, Shane, at least _try_ to grasp the situation," Kris chuckled. "And I'm sorry, too. I know I can be a bit hard to get along with at times, and I haven't really been supporting your thing with Cheren. I really hope things go well between you and him."

"What is this, apology evening?" Shane asked, now genuinely distressed by his lack of understanding of the situation.

Lyra let go of Shane, and both her and Kris stared at Shane intently with their arms crossed.

"Well, Shane?" Kris said. "Aren't you going to apologize for anything?"

"Hmm, let's see," Shane said, rubbing his chin and pretending to ponder. "Okay, I apologize for being just too awesome for you people to handle. Like all geniuses, I, too, am a misunderstood soul, but one day, I shall- hey, where the hell are you going?"

Lyra and Kris were already leaving the rooftop, walking towards the stairs, followed by Croconaw and Quilava. Shane grabbed the partially conscious Shrew and ran after them.

"Do you guys feel that you've forgotten something?" Lyra wondered as the trio walked away. "I kinda do… but I can't remember anything that happened after Ghetsis pushed me off that rooftop…"

"Who cares?" Kris said nonchalantly. "I just want to get back to base and maybe take a shower."

"Yeah, me too," Shane said. "I really wish you'd take one. You, too, Lyra. Did an Octillery molest you or do you just smell like that for fun?"

"Well, I _was_ kept imprisoned on a boat for days on end," Lyra said.

"Days, huh? So… were you tied up?"

"Why do you ask? Well, yeah, I was…"

"So you couldn't… I mean, you had to go on days without… you know… I mean, if you couldn't even use your fingers-"

"_Shut the fuck up, Shane_!" Kris and Lyra yelled in unison.

The sound of the trio bickering and their Pokémon silently sighing at human stupidity soon faded as the trio walked away. Soon enough, they would find the Abra and be on their way, while Leaf remained behind to examine Darkrai's remains. The people of Canalave soon noticed that the fog was subsiding, and that it was safe to come out again. Days later, Canalave prospered again, with people walking on the cobbled streets, Byron opening his gym for promising trainers and ships coming and going every few minutes.

All was normal in Canalave apart from one thing. No one there knew what had happened to sailor Eldritch…

* * *

"_Mr. Alder, SledgeHammer has lifted the blockade of Sinnoh. It seems that everything's back to normal._"

"_What about Darkrai and Cresselia?_"

"_No sightings of Cresselia yet. However, we have confirmation that Darkrai has been destroyed. Best of all, Dr. Greene, the new leader of the science team, is currently doing research on the Lunar Wing she found._"

"_How odd that Kaminko didn't contact us immediately himself. Something is going on. We must make sure that the professor sticks to the plan as written. Mr. Alder, what is our next move_?"

"_We now possess two legendary cores. If Kaminko's reports are accurate, one is in SledgeHammer HQ and the other seems to be implanted where we wished. When we have the third one, all we need to do is wait for the promised day._"

"_But who are we going to use_?"

"_We must continue monitoring the situation. So far, liable targets are only those who present an immediate threat to mankind. There could be, ah… negative press if we indiscriminately target legendary Pokémon_. _We can think of one suitable candidate, though… you may have heard of the Aurora Pokémon, the blue lightning, the North Wind…_"

"_But Mr. Alder, it's impossible to capture it! There's no Pokémon that can match its speed."_."

"Mr. Alder, we have an idea. For a while now, we have monitored the activities of a man who has dedicated his life to the pursuit of his Pokémon. He is rather… eccentric, to say the least, but he is rumored to be effective

"_So it is decided. Contact this man immediately. Brace yourself, Suicune. The hunt is on_."

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**

* * *

**

_Author's Notes__: Wow, lots of exposition by Darkrai, but rest assured, that was intentional. Sorry for the considerable delay. The first one was utterly my fault for trying to pretend that I actually have a life. But now I'm 100% commited to writing my stories. Well, 56%, at least. This is the end of _Modus Operandi_, so thanks to anyone who has read it, I guess. _

_Stay tuned for the next installment to this 'exciting' series_, _titled_ "Just Say The Word", _published in a few days_. _In the next story, there's more everything - legendary Pokémon, action, friendships, semi-comprehensible dialogue and typos. Interspecies romances, Pokémon battles, conspiracies, killing and bad language coming up, too. Kris suffers amusing injuries and is emo, Shane acts a in human/Pokémon a porn movie, Lyra gets diarrhea, Suicune appears to kill more people and lots more. Stay tuned!_


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